


Merrily We Fall

by Curious_Archer



Category: Elyza Lex (Fanverse), QTWD, The 100 (TV)
Genre: Badass Elyza/Clarke, Badass Lexa/Alicia, Cute Protective and Helpful Aden, F/F, General Badass-ery, MamaBearAlicia/Lexa, MamaBearElyza/Clarke, Mentions of Rape, Violence, Will eventually become more Clarke and Lexa than Alicia and Elyza
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-06-03 09:36:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6605770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curious_Archer/pseuds/Curious_Archer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world was at an end before Alicia Clark even realized what was happening. Then she meets a certain blonde who saves her life, and in the process steals her breath away... again and again. As the two get closer and closer, the pair start to remember a life that isn't completely theirs anymore. One thing they do know though is that they don't want to let those memories, or each other go. Follow their story and their struggle to live and love each other... even when their are "flesh-eating wankers" wandering around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Today is Not My Day

**Author's Note:**

> First Elyza Lex/Clarke Griffin fic. Wish me luck and let me know what you think! I kept some of the characters from the 100 the same, except for age, because I feel like we didn't get enough of them in the actual show. Please, please, please review! (This is a repost. Made some slight changes.)

By the time Alicia Clark realized that there was something wrong it was already too late. She thought it had all been just one big hoax at first. The guy on the news being shot in the chest but getting up again anyway? It had to be a prank. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Her whole world was going to hell in a hand basket and she had been completely oblivious.

She sits in the passenger seat of the SUV and tries to politely ignore the boy sitting to her left. Chris had been acting like a whiny little thirteen-year-old who is hopped up on teen angst.

“This is crazy,” Chris whispers as he opens the door and steps out of the car. The sound of the door closing echoing throughout the parking garage.

“They’ll come back,” Alicia responds, rolling her eyes. Chris continues wandering towards the front of the SUV, and sighing in exasperation Alicia opens her door and gets out as well. “If they can’t get in, they’ll come back.”

“And leave the others?” he scoffs.

“Would you rather they all died?” Alicia asks him, leaning against the side of the SUV.

“I don’t want anyone to die. I don’t want that.” He angrily hisses to her.

“Unlike your dad,” she quips back, averting her eyes once again around her surroundings.

“Yeah, well, he tries.” They both hear a loud bang and look up at the ceiling. When they look back at each other Alicia scoffs.

“You can’t save everyone,” she tells him with a shake of her head.

“Why the hell would you say that?” He advances towards her.

“’Cause you can’t. Sorry it’s just-”

“Shut up.” Chris looks towards the entrance to the garage, seeing shadows approaching.

“What?” Alicia looks over her shoulder and notices the shadows as well.

“Get in the car. Get in the car!” Chris hisses at Alicia. They both race to get back inside the car. Alicia hops into her seat and tries to ease the door shut behind her. They slide down into the space under the dashboard, crouching down as best as they can.

“If they’re dead they’ll just keep on walking right? They,” Alicia whispers to Chris. “They’ll just go around.”

“I don’t know.” Is the reply. They continue to try and control their breathing, ducking their heads down even lower than before. Alicia tries not to flinch as she hears the noises getting closer. They hear someone banging on the windows and they both freeze.

All of a sudden the window over Alicia’s head shatters and she tries not to scream. She looks up to see a soldier looming over her, reaching in to unlock the door. The soldier on Chris’s side of the car grabs him by the arm and drags him out of the driver’s seat.

“Hey!” he shouts. “Hey! Get off me man! Get off me!”

The other soldier proceeds to drag Alicia out of the passenger side in a similar fashion. “Get. Off. Me!” she growls at him. They are both dragged to the front of the car where Alicia rips her arm out of the soldier’s grasp.

“Why didn’t you guys just open the damn door? Huh?” one of the soldiers asks.

“Just leave us alone,” Chris replies. “What do you guys want?”

“Transport,” the other soldier says. “Son, just give us the keys.”

“No.”

“Heh, heh. Come on man,” soldier number one says. “We’ll take you with us.”

“We’re not going anywhere.” Alicia tries not to roll her eyes at his idiocy.

“Suit yourself,” soldier number two tells him. He turns to Alicia and grabs her arm again. “What about you, girl?”

“Oi!” They all freeze and turn towards the voice; seeing a blonde woman emerge from behind one of the parked cars. “Leave her alone!”

Caught completely off guard, soldier number two does nothing to stop the punch that he receives to the nose. Soldier number one moves to stop her, and receives a kick to the chest, launching him backwards. While her back is turned soldier number two grabs her from behind while soldier number three, whom they all completely forgot about, starts to punch her wherever he can reach.

Alicia watches as this mysterious blonde receives a beating until she can’t take it anymore.

“STOP!” she screams desperately, knowing that she has to stop this somehow. “I have the keys!”

The soldiers stop what they’re doing and turn to face the brunette. She reaches in to her jacket pocket, trying her best not to shake, and takes out the keys, shoving them in the direction of soldier number one.

“There, now leave us alone.” The soldiers look at each other at Alicia’s words, and they all seem to come to a silent agreement.

“You sure you don’t want to come?” soldier two asks Alicia, reaching out and grabbing her hair.

“Hey!” the blonde cries, once again launching herself at the soldier. She punches the shoulder in the throat and he backs off gagging. She turns towards the other soldiers only to receive a butt of a gun to the temple from number three. She collapses to the ground, passed out cold.

“No!” Alicia screams. She moves to help the unconscious blonde but backs away when the soldiers lift their guns and point them at her and Chris.

“Okay, okay. Just take the car man. Leave us alone, and go,” Chris says, trying to placate the situation.

“Yeah, let’s move out guys,” Three says to his comrades, both who nod and move towards the vehicle. Before he gets in, Two turns back towards the blonde on the ground who is starting to stir. He slowly approaches and crouches in front of her.

“Good luck, bitch.” He rises and kicks her, with as much force as he can muster, in the ribs. Her eyes shoot open and she screams in pain. She tries to locate her attacker but her movements are drowsy and slow, when she finally locks eyes on her assailant, the man kicks her in the head, rendering her unconscious once again.

The engine of the SUV revs and Two turns and runs to the vehicle and hops in. Alicia rushes to drag the blonde out of the way and yells at Chris to come help her. Together they pull her out of the path of the SUV in the nick of time. Barely pulling her feet out of the way as the car speeds past.

“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit,” Chris mumbles as he starts to pace.

“Chris calm down.” Alicia doesn’t even spare him a glance as she tries to rouse the blonde and assess her injuries at the same time.

“Calm down? Calm down. Alicia we just lost one of the cars. What are we going to do now?” he sounds like he’s about to break down so Alicia turns to face him.

“Chris we’ll figure something out, it can’t be that hard to find a working car.” They stand there quietly for a few minutes, not really knowing what to do. They start pacing; Alicia too and from the blonde, and Chris perpendicular to Alicia. They both freeze when they hear groaning. They turn towards the sound and they both sigh in relief when they realize that it was just the blonde coming to.

Alicia rushes to her side and kneels next to her. She places her left hand on the girl’s shoulder and slides her right arm around her back helping her sit up. Slowly the pair make progress and after a minute they have the blonde slumping against one of the garage’s support beams, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Hey, hey, hey. Shh, shh,” Alicia tries to calm her. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

“I know,” the blonde responds through gritted teeth. She keeps her eyes scrunched closed. “Don’t worry about me, love. I’ve had worse.”

Alicia smirks and sits back on her heels. She’s about to respond when Chris starts… confronting the blonde.

“Thanks,” he growls. “Thanks to you, we lost our car! I had things under control!”

“Clearly,” the blonde mumbles not even bothering to open her eyes to look at the boy.

“Oh shut up!” Chris hisses. “At least I’m not the one who got my as kicked. So obviously you handled that superbly.”

“That’s a big word. Good job, mate.”

“What are you five?”

“Pfft, try four. Thank you very much.” The blonde chuckles at her own joke, groaning in pain when the action jostles her probably broken ribs.

“Okay! Shut it! Both of you! Chris, we don’t know what those guys would’ve done to us, _me_ , if she hadn’t shown up, so be grateful. We could’ve been dead by now. So just… shut up.” Alicia intervenes, trying to refrain from throttling the pair.

“Fine. The others should be back at any minute. The sun’s almost up, then we’ll be leaving.” He looks at the blonde. “And don’t assume the we’ll take you with us.”

“Oh I wouldn’t dare. You know what they say; assuming makes an ass out of you and me. Wouldn’t want to look like an ass now would I?” She smiles at her joke, reminding herself that she can’t laugh.

“Who even are you anyway?” he asks her, the venom very clear in his voice.

“Elyza. Elyza Lex.” She holds out her hand for a shake but he ignores it, crossing his own arms in the process.

Alicia reaches out and grasps the pro-offered hand.

“Alicia Clark,” she gestures to herself, then to Chris, “and Chris Manawa. Pleased to meet you.”

“Ditto.” All three jump when they hear rapid footsteps approaching. A door opens to their left and Alicia and Chris hide behind a car, leaving Elyza where she is.

“Chris?” they hear Travis call softly. “Alicia.”

They don’t respond right away out of fear of others being with them.

“Where’s the car?” Madison asks.

“Chris! Alicia!” Travis calls again.

“Keep your voice down,” Daniel says. “The dead will hear.”

“We’re here!” Alicia says, stepping out from behind the car and dragging Chris with her. They both momentarily forget about Elyza. “Mom!”

“Dad. Dad!” They rush towards their parents and they each embrace their parent in a hug.

“Are you okay?” Travis asks. “What happened?”

“Soldiers took the SUV. I’m sorry I-” Chris is interrupted by Liza pulling him into a hug.

“Christopher!” she exclaims.

“Mom, mom! I’m fine. I’m fine,” Alicia assures her.

“We must go now,” Daniel tells the group at large. He doesn’t see Andrew come out from behind a truck and point a gun at his back.

“Salazar,” he says, raising the gun even higher, pointing it at the man’s head. The others turn their attention to Andrew as he approaches the group.

“Andy?” Ofelia asks. Slowly approaching the man. “Andy?... Hey, Andrew…. Put the gun down. You don’t have to do this, okay? What are you doing? Just put the gun down.”

All are oblivious to the blonde who is now crouching behind a car, watching the scene unfold.

“Ofelia!” Daniel warns.

“Andrew, don’t do this,” Ofelia pleads. She continues her approach. “Please, please. Andy.”

Elyza sees that look in his eye and she knows what’s about to happen. She runs out from behind the car just as he turns the gun on Ofelia.

“No!” Daniel cries out as the man pulls the trigger.

They all hear a grunt of pain as the bullet meets flesh but all are surprised to see that it’s not Ofelia who was hit.

“Mother _fucker_!” Elyza yells out as she rolls off of Ofelia.

Travis rushes Andy and tackles him to the ground. Disarming him in the process.

“Dad!” Chris cries. Alicia tries to make her way to Eliza, but her progress is delayed by Madison.

Ofelia pushes herself up and turns to the cursing blonde beside her. Liza and Daniel race to their sides as Travis proceeds to punch Andy senseless. He continues until Madison is able to talk him down, leaving the younger man completely dazed and coughing up blood.

“Shh, shh. It’s going to be alright. Shh.” They all hear Liza mumbling to the still cursing blonde.

“Elyza!” Alicia exclaims, rushing over to the blonde.

“We need to leave,” Daniel tells them all. “The noise will have drawn their attention. We need to go. Help me get her into the bed of the truck.”

He bends down and wraps one arm gently under her arm. Alicia bends to get the other side and together they both lift the blonde to her feet.

“Today has just not been my day!” Elyza tells them, stumbling when her vision temporarily goes black.

“Yeah,” Alicia agrees. “Let’s get you in the truck and go.”

“No.” Elyza starts fighting the two, pushing them off of her. They only tighten their grip, causing Elyza to lash out. “No! Let me go! I can’t leave them! Just wait!”

“Elyza, we don’t have time-” Alicia starts, but she’s cut off by the unexpectedly strong shove she gets, causing her to stumble away from the blonde.

“No. Just wait! Wait.” She starts stumbling towards the mouth of the garage and the others just watch her go.

“What is she doing?” Nick asks the group.

“I don’t know.” Ofelia says watching the younger girl approach a lone car at the front of the garage. It’s then that they hear it. A muffled high pitched wail.

“Do you hear that?” Alycia asks, the whole group nods in response.

They watch as the blonde opens the door to another large SUV. They all look at each other when the wail grows louder.

“Shh, shh baby girl. Hush now. It’s alright. Shh.” They watch the blonde lean inside and grab something, and the wailing stops instantly.

“I’m sorry mama, I tried to keep her quiet, but the loud noise scared her! There was nothing that I could do! I’m sorry!” They hear another voice say.

“It’s okay, baby. Shh. Don’t cry, I’m not mad, I promise. Shh. Help me with the bags baby. We’re leaving.” She pulls away from the car and turns towards the others, who are just staring at her in shock. They can see the pain etched clearly on the young woman’s face.

“Mama I can’t lift this one, it’s too heavy,” the young boy, who has yet to be seen, says from within the car. Elyza turns to the car and whispers something that the others can’t hear. Then she straightens with the girl on her hip and turns back towards the others.

“Help me,” she barely gets out. “Please.”

That’s all it takes for Alicia and Ofelia to rush to her aid. After some mild hesitation Liza and Daniel also move to help. The others just stand by the truck and watch.

“What do you need?” Alicia asks as she reaches the SUV.

“All of the bags are in the back,” Elyza responds. “Everything that I need is there. I have some things that will help everyone too.”

Alicia nods and moves to the back of the SUV to open the trunk. Ofelia sticks her head into the car, and sees a little strawberry blonde boy struggling with the bags in the back. She watches as the boy startles when Alicia gets the trunk open and he realizes that the person standing there isn’t his mom.

“It’s okay sweet pea,” Elyza calls into the car. “They’re friends.”

Ofelia watches the small boy nod and continue what he’s doing. Which appears to be packing a diaper bag.

“Is there a car seat?” Ofelia asks Elyza, who shakes her head.

“If we were about to be overwhelmed by wankers I don’t want to be killed because I have to get her out of a childproof car seat. Aden carries her.”

Ofelia nods and moves to the back of the car, grabbing the bags that are obviously filled with baby things. She watches as Liza and Daniel grab the heavier bags and all three start marching towards the car.

“Where are we going mama?” Aden asks Elyza as he slides out of the back; the diaper bag and his backpack slung over his shoulders.

“I don’t know yet bud. Follow this nice lady and I’ll be right behind you.” She looks at Alicia who nods and starts walking towards the truck. She looks down at Aden who is watching the girl go and she gives him a nudge to urge him to follow. As he walks she stumbles around to the driver’s side door and reaches in to grab her backpack. Then adjusting the now sleeping girl in her arms she walks back to the group.

“I hate to be the wet blanket,” Strand starts, “but not all of us are going to fit in that truck.”

“I go’ it,” Elyza mumbles, handing her baby girl to Ofelia and dropping her backpack on the ground.

She swivels around until she locates a car of her liking and walks towards it. When she gets there she starts trying to open the doors, letting out a breath of relief when she finds that the door behind the driver’s seat is unlocked. She reaches into the car, stifling a groan of pain as she does so and unlocks the driver’s door.

She slides into the driver’s seat and pulls out her knife. She jams it into the paneling under the steering wheel and pries it open. She pulls out the wires and starts rewiring the car to get it started. She sighs happily when she hears the engine rev.

She steps out of the car to find Aden and Travis waiting for her. She smiles at the whole group and ruffles Aden’s hair.

“There ya go.” And with that she loses consciousness, collapsing into Travis while her son cries out for her.

* * *

 

When she comes to, she feels a weight in her stomach and she can tell that she’s in a moving vehicle. When she first opens her eyes she can see useless streetlamps and burned buildings pass her by. She groggily turns her head to get a better look at her surroundings and she notices that she’s in the bed of a truck. She looks down towards her stomach and sees that the weight there is Aden’s head, from where he lays holding his sister close and sleeping.

She tries to sit up but she is halted by A gentle hand on her shoulder pushing her back down.

“Easy now,” she hears the person say. “I’ve stitched up your shoulder and I’ve stitched up your other wounds. You have three broken ribs, but you’ll live.”

Elyza nods to show her acknowledgement that she heard what Liza was telling her. She looks back down at Aden and starts running her fingers through his hair. Liza follows her line of vision and smiles softly, remembering when her on son was that young.

“He hasn't said one word since we started moving. How old is he?” Liza asks the girl.

“Almost five now.” Elyza smiles fondly.

“How old are you? You seem a little young to be his mother.”

“I’m almost twenty. And he’s not biologically mine. We were in the same foster home. He was just a baby when he got there, not even a year old. I had planned on running away that week, but when I saw him, I knew I couldn’t leave him behind. So I took care of him, I was the only mother that he’s actually known. So after a few years I saved up all of my money and I moved us out here a little… over a year ago? We were finally happy….” She drifts off, not taking her eyes off of her son.

“I’m sorry.” She looks up to see who spoke and spots Ofelia.

“No worries, I have my family. We’re alive and safe… well, relatively safe. And that’s all I can ask for.”

“What’s her name?” Ofelia asks, gesturing towards the little girl who is clinging to Aden.

“Harley,” Elyza tells them. “Harley Paige. I named her after my dad’s favorite motorcycle. He had to sell it after I was born, but he loved that thing. Paige was my mother’s name.”

“Is she yours?” Elyza hears Daniel ask. She looks over at him and nods.

“Yeah, she’s mine. She’s the main reason I decided to get out of Australia. I wanted her to have a better life than I did…. I wanted _both_ of them to have a better life than I did.” She sighs and slowly starts to push herself into a sitting position. Gently sliding her sons head into her lap as she does so.

“I told you to take it easy,” Liza scolds. Elyza tries to stifle a laugh as she eases her daughter out of Aden’s arms.

“Please. Trust me Doc. I have had worse, much worse.” She tells Liza. She starts to take a look around her when things fall quiet. She speaks up when she realizes that she has no clue where they are going, “So, where’re we headin’ to?”

“West.” Daniel tells her, letting everything fall silent again as Elyza holds Harley close.


	2. A Difficult Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone arrives at Strand's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review! Reviews inspire me! Also I won't be posting for a while, I have senior finals coming up and I'd like to graduate, so I'm going to focus on those. When I'm done, I'll have more time to write! Once again, PLEASE REVIEW! LET ME KNOW IF I SHOULD EVEN CONTINUE!!!!!!

When they pull up to Strand’s house, Elyza softly whistles at the sight before her. Gently nudges her son awake. “Aden,” she sings softly, kissing his temple repeatedly. “Aden, wake up sweetie. We’re here.”

He groans and tries to ignore her by burying his head in her lap.

“No.” She starts ruffling his hair at his reply, refusing to stop when he tries to shake her off.

“Oh come on, ya baby.” He shakes his head. “Fine, I’ll just go enjoy this mansion by myself.”

“Mansion?” he pops up and swivels his head left and right before turning around and seeing the large estate. “Whoooaaa,” he breathes.

Everyone proceeds to get out of the cars, Strand pulling in front to type in the passcode to the gate saying, “Come,” as he goes.

“Mama,” Aden starts, “It looks like it’s underground, but it’s not.”

“I can see that sweetie.” She responds, grabbing his hand and shifting Harley into a better position on her hip before following Strand.

“Grid’s dead,” Nick states as Strand goes to punch in the code.

“Generator kicks on when the power dies,” he responds, pushing the gate open and heading inside, just expecting the others to follow.

“Mama, I can hear the ocean.”

“I know, me too baby.” Elyza laughs as her son tugs her after Strand. They walk through the door, Elyza more cautiously than the rest. And the second that Aden sees the floor to ceiling windows he lets go of Elyza’s hand and races towards them. When he reaches them he smashes his face against the window.

“Mama, look! Mama look! I can see the _whole_ ocean from here!... Look! There’s a bird! The big white kind!” he spews this all out, his voice somewhat muffled by the window because he refuses to peel himself away from the thing.

“It’s called a seagull!” Alicia calls to him. She laughs when the boy giggles and repeats her words to his mother.

“Anyone hungry?” Strand asks, crossing back through the kitchen towards the rest of the group who is still huddled in the entryway. “Help yourself.”

No one responds as they start milling around the house, taking everything in. Slowly, Elyza starts making her way to one of the couches. Alicia and Ofelia follow, offering her support when she needs it. She stands in front of the couch with her back to it, watching her son, when she realizes that she really needs help sitting down. She looks over at Alicia and smirks, wiggling her eyebrows and slightly shaking her butt. The brunette laughs and wordlessly starts helping her sit.

“Shit! Fuck!” Elyza yelps as she bumps against the back of the couch, and a pain shoots through her body at the stimulation to her ribs.

“Elyza!” Alicia repremands her. “Your four-year-old son is right there!”

“Crikey, he’s not listening, he doesn’t know what I said.”

“Shit! Fuck!” Aden yells, still not turning away from the window.

“Thanks bud,” Elyza says dryly. The only response she receives is a dismissive thumb’s up. She chuckles to herself and shakes her head, listening to Alicia chuckle too.

As she watches her son and starts to play with her still sleeping daughter’s hair, Liza comes over and sits beside her. As she starts to examine her wounds the others disperse to give them privacy. Slowly Elyza hands Harley to the nurse, then slowly starts to take off her layers until she is left only in her sports bra.

Liza hands the baby back to her mother and then starts examining the blonde.

“It’s through and through Elyza. It’s clotting. I’m going to start stitching the entry wound and the exit wound, then the cut on your forehead.” Liza informs the girl as she begins applying the stitches.

“Okie, dokie Doc. Let’s get this started.” As she finishes her sentence, Aden rushes to her side and grabs her hand, offering her support, because he knows about her true fear of needles. “Thanks baby,” she whispers to him before leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

They sit like that until the nurse is completely done with her stitching. When she’s done she sits back and admires her work. Once she’s done with all of her stitching she checks the girl’s ribs, poking and prodding for a solid ten minutes, much to the blonde’s displeasure.

“Okay, you have three broken ribs and one fractured, as well as severe bruising. I suggest that you take it easy for a few days, then you should be back to normal. Make sure to change the dressing, keep it clean. You can survive this,” she tells Elyza, but the girl knows that this info is actually for the young boys benefit, as soon as he hears it he starts smiling again.

“Thanks Doc, I really appreciate it.” The blonde smiles and looks down at Harley, beginning to play with her hair again.

“Yeah, thanks!” Aden says, smiling at the older woman, his slight accent making the words even cuter.

The nurse goes to stand but changes her mind when she sees that Harley’s eyes are indeed open and watching her mother with a sleepy smile on her face.

“May I hold her?” She gestures to the small girl who is laying in her mother’s lap.

“Of course.” Elyza gently lifts the baby and hands her to the older woman. Liza takes Harley into her arms and cradles her to her chest as though she is the most fragile little doll she has ever seen.

“I haven’t actually held a baby in a really long time. I miss the feeling that I got when Chris would look up at me and smile as though I was the only person he would ever need.” She strokes Harleys cheek and then tickles her belly, smiling with tears in her eyes when the baby giggles uncontrollably.

“I completely understand.” Elyza smiles kindly at the nurse. “It’s still hard for me to believe sometimes, I’m nineteen and I have a daughter. I almost didn’t have her because of the way that she came about. It was and unpleasant situation, and I almost gave her up, now I can’t even imagine my life without her. I’d do anything for her, and for Aden.”

“I’d do anything for my family too,” Liza responds, continuing to stare at the little girl. “She really is precious. In this new world you lose hope that you’ll ever see true beauty again. I’m glad that I finally got to see some again.” She hands Harley back to Elyza and stands. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“No worries.” Is the blondes reply. Elyza watches as Liza walks into the kitchen and hugs her son. When she sees the butt of a gun peak out of her waistband she gets suspicious. As Liza exits the house with Madison in tow, the blonde decides that she should investigate.

“Alicia!” she calls, struggling to stand up. When the younger girl enters the room, Elyza cuts straight to the chase. “I need you to hold Harley for me, please.”

Before the girl can even say a word Elyza is off in the direction she saw the pair go, grabbing her gun off of the coffee table as she goes. Her pursuit is slow moving, but she can see Travis up ahead and the sight makes her even more suspicious. By the time that she arrives she can see Liza and Travis arguing. The latter shaking the former by the shoulders.

“No. no goddamn it.” She hears Travis say. “I’m not going to let you do it.”

“I’ve seen it. I’ve seen what it does- the bites don’t turn you, but the infection is untreatable.” The thought that the woman is infected knocks the wind from Elyza’s lungs. “The infection kills you just like anything else. Then it happens…. It doesn’t matter how you die, you come back, we all come back.” Her voice breaks in desperation. “I don’t want that happening to me. Stay with our son Travis… you’ve gotta protect him from this. Okay? Promise me. Okay? Promise.”

“Okay.” Elyza hears the man whisper.

The woman falls to her knees crying, trying not to break, but not finding the strength. Travis turns to Madison and reaches for the gun. As she sobs Liza opens her eyes to see Elyza standing the gun in hand. Elyza can see the plea in the woman’s eyes, and after a few seconds she nods. As Travis turns back to face Liza, Elyza raises her gun, taking aim at the woman.

‘ _Thank you_ ,’ the woman mouths. Elyza just nods her acknowledgement, trying not to cry herself. She watches as the woman continues to try and contain her sobs, Travis raises his gun, and Elyza takes the shot.

The noise echoes over the water. The only thing louder is Travis’s pained cries as he moves to cradle the body. Madison turns to see the blonde behind them, and nods her gratitude. She nods back and turns to give them privacy. She almost breaks when she sees Chris rushing towards them. When he reaches her, she tries to block his progress.

“Chris, no. you don’t want to see this. Chris. Chris!” she calls after him as he pushes past her and runs to his mother’s body, letting out a cry of anguish himself.

“What happened?” Elyza whips around to face the person who spoke. She sees Alicia carrying a crying, startled Harley, and reaches for her daughter.

“She’d been bitten. Had to end it for her.” Alicia can see the tears in the other girl’s eyes and wants nothing more than to hug her.

Elyza slowly walks up the path back towards the house and cradles Harley close, drawing comfort from the infant. She gives a sad smile when she sees Aden rushing out of the house and to her, colliding with her legs.

“Mama, what was that?” Aden asks her.

“It was a gunshot baby, but you don’t need to worry about it okay?”

“Okay, Mama.”

The trio plus Alicia proceed to re-enter the house. The second that they cross the threshold, they are bombarded with questions. Slightly overwhelmed by the situation, Elyza just comes right out and says it, not sugarcoating anything.

“Liza’s dead. She was bitten at the compound. She didn’t want to turn, so she had us kill her,” she pauses, and when she sees that they’re about to ask more questions, she pulls Harley closer and continues. “Now, I don’t particularly want to talk about it, it’s rather upsetting, and I’m exhausted. I’ve had a long day, and to top it all off I have a bullet wound in my shoulder. So me and my family are going to go find a bed and sleep. Wake use when we’re needed.” She turns to Aden and grabs his hand again. “Come on baby, it’s nap time.”

“Okay, Mama.”


	3. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some family time between Elyza, Aden, and Harley. Chris tries to get revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!

Elyza wakes up to the sound of hushed voices outside of the door that she and the kids are sleeping in. Suddenly alert when she hears the urgency in the voices. She slowly extracts herself from Aden and Harley, the two kids had been curled up on and around Elyza so she had to be extremely careful in sliding of the bed.

“Chris, calm down. Chris!” Elyza hears Alicia’s voice. She creeps closer, being careful not to make a noise. “She had been bitten, she would have turned. Chris!”

Elyza throws open the door when she hears something slam against the wall outside. The sight that greets her is somewhat confusing. Nick, Alicia, and Ofelia have Chris pinned against the wall, and he’s struggling to get free.

“Oi! What’s going on here?” she asks, stepping out of the room and closing the door quietly behind her.

The second Chris sets eyes on her, he flies off the handle once again. “You, bitch! She helped you! She helped you and you killed her! I’m gonna kill you. Aaargh! Let me go! Let me go!”

“No!” Alicia, tells him. “You need to calm down Chris.”

“Not until she pays. I’ll kill her too!” He continues to struggle.

“Chris, your mom would have turned, there was nothing you could have done,” Nick tells the distressed boy.

“Chris, what she did, it was a mercy, if she hadn’t done it your mom would have done it herself.” Ofelia strains to get the words out, as Chris starts to thrash.

“Let him go.” They all freeze at Elyza’s words.

“What?” Ofelia asks, not loosening her grip on the younger boy.

“Let him go.”

“Elyza, he wants to hurt you,” Alicia tells her gently.

“I know, let him go.”

The three restrainers loosen their grips and then step back. As soon as he’s free, Chris charges Elyza, eliciting shouts of protest from the three who let him go. But before either of them realize what is happening, Chris is pinned against the wall with Elyza pinning his arm behind him painfully.

“Holy shit,” Nick whispers.

“How did she do that?” Ofelia asks Alicia, who shrugs in response, at a complete loss for words.

“Let me go!” Chris shouts.

“What’s going on here?” The three who are not currently engaged in a fight turn at the voice, and see Madison, Daniel, and Strand standing there. In the background they can see Travis sitting on one of the couches.

“Now you listen here,” Elyza says, ignoring the additions to the audience. “What I did for your mother is something only a mother would understand. All I can hope for is that no one else here has to go through the same thing. Realizing that she was bitten was probably the worst moment in her life, not because she realized that she was going to die, but because she realized that she was going to have to leave you behind. She did what she did so that you wouldn’t have to see what she would have become. She knew what that would’ve done to you, to Travis. She couldn’t do it herself and she didn’t want Travis or you to do it, she knew it would have broken you. So I did it. But your mother loved you, and that’s not going to change just because she’s dead. She’s still with you Chris. She’s still with you.”

She loosens her grip on the boy when her voice cracks. Clearing her throat, she releases him and takes a step back. Chris stays where he is before taking a deep breath and turning to face Elyza with red eyes.

“This isn’t over,” he growls at her. With that he spins on his heel and stalks off towards the back of the house.

The stifling silence is interrupted by a door opening.

“Mama?” Aden’s voice interrupts her darks thoughts. “Are you ok? You’re crying.”

Elyza quickly wipes her eyes before turning to crouch in front of the young boy.

“I’m alright baby, it’s just my allergies acting up.” She smiles and ruffles his hair.

“But you don’t have allergies.” She lets out a wet laugh at his comment.

“Hush, we don’t want to ruin my image now do we?” He shakes his head, but he still looks up at her with concern filled eyes. “I’m fine love. I promise.”

“Pinky promise?” He holds out his hand, pinky extended towards her, causing her to laugh once again. She reaches out and hooks her pinky around his.

“Pinky promise,” she whispers to him. She rises from her crouched position and turns him back toward the door. “Okay Squirt, back to bed, naptime isn’t over yet.”

“Mama? Why is everyone looking at you?” Elyza glances over her shoulder to see that everyone is indeed looking at her, with expressions of concern none-the-less.

“They’re not looking at me Squirt; they’re looking at you,” she tells him but the boy only shakes his head.

“No they’re looking at you.” He turns to face her, waiting for an answer.

“It’s probably the boobs. And can we blame them? They are pretty fantastic.” This causes the boy to cover his ears and run back into the room.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! Mama! That’s icky! Ew!” he whisper-yells as he runs back to the bed flopping down, being careful not to bother his sleeping sister.

“What? You asked!” She follows him into the room and turns one last time to look at the group and when she sees that they’re all smiling, at least a little bit, she throws them a wink and closes the door behind her.

* * *

 

“Not gonna lie,” Nick starts, “that was hot.”

Ofelia laughs and Alicia doesn’t even pay him any attention, other than a smack to the arm.

“Ow! What? It’s true! That was freaking hot!”

“Now’s not really the time Nick,” Madison tells him, turning back to Travis, and walking back to his side.

“When will it ever be the time?” he calls after her. When he receives no answer he scoffs and shakes his head, walking back to the kitchen in search of something to eat.

Everyone disbands except for Alicia, who is still staring at the door that the blonde disappeared behind. When Ofelia notice that her brunette friend isn’t behind her, she turned around and approached the younger girl.

“Alicia. What’s wrong?” she asks, placing her hand on the girl’s arm. The girl barely acknowledges her.

“I don’t know. I just- for a minute there, she- I- I thought- it seemed like I recognized her from somewhere. She just seemed, I don’t know. She just seemed so _familiar_. You know?”

Ofelia looks at the girl before her in confusion, “No, I can’t say that I do.”

At her words, Alicia seems to snap out of whatever daze she had been in. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s okay. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Alicia nods and follows after Ofelia as she heads towards the kitchen. Before she turns the corner however, she glances once more at the closed door and she can’t shake the feeling that she knows the blonde. She gives her head a shake to try and clear it of her confusing thoughts, and resumes following Ofelia into the kitchen.

* * *

 

“Mama!” Aden whispers, through the dark room. The confrontation had only been a few hours before, and the boy had finished his nap minutes before he started whispering to his mother. “Mama!”

“What is it baby?” Elyza asks him, face still buried deep in her pillow, cradling Harley under her arm.

“I’m hungry.” He nudges her arm trying to get her to move. He looks at his sister and realizes that she too is awake. Looking back at his mom he narrows his eye in determination, before he leans over and whispers in his sister’s ear.

“Ma, gy!” her tiny voice rang through the room.

Elyza rolls over and sits up glaring at her son, who is smiling like she just offered him a bucket of ice cream.

“Did you just exploit the fact that two of the three words that your sister can even kind of say is ‘ma’ and ‘hungry’?” She asks the boy.

All Aden can do is smile and nod excitedly.

“That’s my boy!” She cries throwing her arms around him exaggeratedly causing him to start giggling uncontrollably. “I’ve raised you well!”

They turn when they hear the door open and they see Alicia standing in the door way.

“What’s going on?” Her question just elicits even more laughs from the family.

“Ma, gy!” Harley cries joyfully, laughing and clapping her hands along with her mother and brother. “Gy, gy, gy!”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand….” Alicia trails off watching the family laugh on the bed with a faint smile on her lips.

These two,” Elyza gestures to her kids, “are quite the manipulative tag team. Isn’t that right?”

Aden nods his head and places his hand on Harley’s head to nod it for her.

Even Alicia has to giggle at the sight.

Elyza lets out a large exaggerated sigh and stands up from the bed, pulling Harley with her. She struggles for a second because her daughter is still shrieking happily and trying to clap. Finally, Elyza shifts her so that her head rests in the crook of her neck, and the small girl wraps her arms around her mother’s neck clinging tightly.

“Alright munchkins, let’s go get you something to eat.” She exits the room with Aden hot on her heels. The family heads towards the kitchen with Alicia following the family close behind. “What do you want kiddo?”

“Mac and Cheese! Mac and Cheese!” he tells her, excitement oozing from his pores. Elyza just smile and grabs a cup of Velveeta instant Mac and Cheese from one of her bags that sits on the kitchen table. She walks over to the sink and places Harley down in the half of the sink that doesn’t have the faucet over it.

“Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma,” Harley babbles as she slaps her hands on the granite countertop next to her.

“Alicia,” she hears the blonde say, “can you open this? My knuckles are so bruised I can’t get a good grip.” She chuckles awkwardly, holding the cup out to her.

“Of course.” Alicia grabs the cup and smiles when she sees, ‘ADEN’S’ written in a five-year-olds handwriting. She opens the cup and takes out the cheese packet, placing it on the counter for later. She hands the cup back to Elyza and says, “There you go!”

“Thanks. Aden go wash your hands in the bathroom, it may be the end of the world but we’re not savages.” Aden nods and eagerly runs off.

Savages.

Something about that world pulled at Alicia’s heart. It hurt her to hear that word coming from the blonde and she couldn’t figure out why.

As soon as the feeling came it was gone again, and Alicia couldn’t remember what she was thinking about.

“So what was that earlier about the two of them being manipulative?” Alicia ask, breaking the silence that had settled between the two. The blonde laughs as she responds.

“Oh, that. Well, Harley here, only knows three words. ‘Ma’, ‘Den’ for Aden, and ‘hungy’ and she doesn’t even know what that word means, she just knows how to say it, because Aden taught her it for his own evil ways.” The whole tie that Elyza is explaining the smile won’t leave her face.

“That is adorable.” Alicia laughs.

“I know, they’re my kids, gorgeous, of course they’re adorable.” Elyza throws Alicia a wink, causing the brunette to blush before she turns around to face her daughter.

Their moment of happy peace is interrupted by a terrified cry.

“Mama! Mama, help!” They hear Aden cry from down the hall. In a flash Elyza has her gun out of her waistband and rushing towards the source of her son’s cry.

“Alicia stay with Harley.”

“Elyza-”

“Alicia please! Keep her safe.” With that Elyza is off racing towards the hall Aden had disappeared down.

The sight that greeted her chilled her to the bone.

Standing in the middle of the hall facing her was Chris and Aden. The latter shaking with a gun to his head.

“Mama!” he cries when he sees her.

“Chris… let him go. Please. Just, let him go.” By now everyone except for Alicia and Harley are standing in the hallway, watching the proceedings.

“Oh my god,” Ofelia breathes.

“Why should I? Huh? You took my mom. You’re the reason why I’m suffering. So why shouldn’t I be the reason why you suffer?”

“Because that won’t make you feel better Chris, trust me. I’ve taken that route before it only makes things worse.” She slowly starts creeping towards the pair.

“Don’t come any closer!” he warns her, but she continues to creep closer, gun pointed at his head. “I said don’t come any closer!” He presses the gun even harder into her son’s head, causing the small boy to whimper.

“Okay! Okay.” She cries. “There, see? I’ve stopped. Now, let him go.”

“No.” He once again presses the gun even harder against the boy’s head. “I should just pull the trigger shouldn’t I?”

“No! Please, no. Please! Please.” She looks straight into Aden’s eyes for the next part, praying that he’ll get the signal. “He’s family. He’s all I’ve got.”

Everything happens all at once. All of a sudden Aden elbows Chris in the groin and runs. As he runs he passes Elyza who rushes past him, charging into Chris, knocking him to the ground. The others watch as they struggle until quite suddenly everything in the hallway stills.

Elyza sits, perched on Chris’s stomach, gun pointing at his head.

“I should kill you mate. I should blow your fucking head off for what you just tried to do to my son.” She growls pushing the barrel of the gun against his forehead. Everyone holds their breath, Travis tries to advance on Elyza, but Madison holds him back, shaking her head.

“Do it then. That’s what you do right? Blow people’s heads off?” He presses his forehead back into the gun.

“I’m not going to shoot you. I wouldn’t do that. Unlike you, I don’t like threatening innocent _children_ ,” she sneers at him. She stands up, gun still trained on his forehead. “Stand up. We’re going for a walk.”

“Oh I see. You want to get me alone to kill me.” He glares at her as he rises to his feet.

“No actually. They can come to if they want.” She flicks her gun towards the door. “Now move.”

They start walking towards the door, everyone but Strand following close behind. They exit the house and continue walking.

“If you don’t want to kill me then why do you have the gun?” Chris asks Elyza, not even bothering to turn and look at her.

“Because right now, knowing that if I wanted to, I could shoot you, is the only thing keeping me from actually shooting you,” she responds. The group continues walking until Elyza spots what she’s been looking for.

She grabs Chris by his collar and drags her over to the fence, where there are four walkers trying to reach for them. The closer they get; the more Chris starts to struggle.

“What are you doing?” Travis calls going to stop her, but he freezes when she looks him in the eye.

“I’m not going to hurt him Travis. I’m just teaching him a lesson. Now shut the fuck up and back off,” she growls at him continuing to push Chris towards the fence.

“Elyza this is crazy!” Travis tries to reason with her. She stops and slowly turns her head to look at him.

“As crazy as holding a gun to a four-year-old’s head?” she asks. When she receives no response, she scoffs and turns around.

“This is different,” he tries.

“Yeah, it is. I don’t plan on hurting anyone.” She finally stops Chris right in front of the fence.

She stands there and waits for one of the walkers to drag itself to a stop right in front of Chris’s face. Chris recoils in horror at the thing. Instead of easing up, she pushes him even closer to the walker until he is no more than an inch away.

“You see this?” she asks him. “Do you see this creature? That used to be a person, same as your mom. They didn’t want to die. They didn’t want to become this creature. But do you want to know the difference between this thing and your mom?” No response. “Do you? Good. I’ll tell you. Your mom had people who cared enough about her to keep her from becoming _this_. And believe me, this would’ve been her, if I hadn’t helped her. Take a good look. Did you want this for your mom? Did you?”

Chris shakes his head, and Elyza spins him around to face her.

“Good. But listen to me, and listen to me good. If you _ever_ , and I mean _ever_ try to hurt my family again, we will be right back here, in this situation, only next time? Next time, I won’t keep you a safe distance away. I will let them have you and I wouldn’t even have trouble sleeping at night after. Do you hear me?” He nods once again. “Good. Now, because I know that you only acted out because you were suffering, I’m going to forget this little incident. But if you every do this again, I won’t hesitate in making you one of them. Capisce?”

“Y-yes.”

“Good, now I’m going to go check on my son, and my daughter. Y’all can come with if you want.”

With that she stalks off back towards the house. Everyone following close behind, and Travis supporting a crying Chris.

The second she walks through the door she is tackled to the floor by her crying son. She cradles him and rocks him. She runs her hands through his hair and shushes him. But still he continues to cry. When she sees Chris walk through the door, Alicia stalks towards him and socks him in the jaw.

“You disgust me. He’s a child. A child! You should be ashamed of yourself!” she yells at him. She makes a move to hit him again but is stopped by the sound of Elyza’s voice.

“Alicia, where’s Harley?” her voice cracks on her daughter’s name, and Alicia nods in understanding.

“She’s taking a bath in the sink, don’t worry. She’s too distracted by the bubbles to know what’s going on.” Elyza nods her appreciation and stands lifting Aden with her, the young boy wrapping his legs around the blonde’s waist. He continues to whimper quietly as she passes Alicia. She pauses when she’s next to the brunette.

“Thank you,” she whispers, leaning over and kissing her cheek. Alicia just nods and watches as the blonde runs to the kitchen.

Once she disappears, Alicia turns back to face Chris.

“You’re despicable.” With that she turns to follow the blonde into the kitchen. Going where her heart tells her she needs to be. Plus, she doesn’t want to leave the blonde alone. She had just come so close to losing her son, all because she had tried to do the right thing.

She wasn’t going to let the blonde punish herself for what just happened. She needs to know that none of this was her fault. None of it. This was all Chris.

God is Chris lucky she didn’t have any weapons on her.

The fucking asshole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Review!


	4. Perfect Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone boards the yacht and Strand has issues with babies and crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done with School, which means more frequent updates! Wooooo! Shorter chapter than usual, but I wanted to get something out for you guys. Future chapters should be longer and more in-depth. PLEASE REVIEW!!!

Alicia watched as Elyza raced down the beach, a kid in each arm, and two bags over each shoulder. She follows closely behind, keeping her head down for fear of being stricken by falling debris. She too carries extra weight as she tears towards the raft that awaits the group and their supplies. She reaches the boat as Elyza is placing a crying Harley in Aden’s arms, the young boy placing his hands over his younger sister’s ears in an attempt to block out the noise.

“That’s good baby,” she hears Elyza yell to the boy, “just like that! Nice and tight! We don’t want her to go deaf now do we?”

The tiny blonde boy shakes his head no, causing his mother to chuckle darkly.

“We need to go!” Nick yells to the woman and his sister. The latter of the two nods her head and steps into the boat. She moves to sit down but is stopped by a hand on the crook of her elbow. She turns to see Elyza looking up at her, the tide pulling at her side as it recedes back into the ocean.

“Watch them for me!” she yells. “I need to help with the rest of the supplies!”

Alicia can only nod her understanding before the blonde is leaning over kissing her kids’ foreheads and running back up the beach.

“Mama, NO! Mama come back! Mama!” Aden cries after her. Alicia has to rush to keep him and his sister on the raft as the boy tries to run after his mother’s retreating figure.

“Aden. Aden!” Alicia pulls the boy into her body and nods at nick to go. “Aden, it’s okay. She’s going to be okay. I promise you.”

“It’s not good to make promises that you might not be able to keep,” Nick chimes in not even bothering to spare the three a glance.

“Shut the fuck up Nick,” Alicia hisses at her brother. She turns back to the kids when Harley lets out yet another loud wail. She reaches to take her from Aden, “Here, Aden, give her to me. I’ll hold her while you cover her ears okay?”

The boy looks unsure and tightens his grip as he looks back towards the beach where he can see his mother running back towards the beach from the house, and then back to Lexa. He sniffles as he begins nodding his head, loosening his grip in order to allow Alicia to scoop the crying seven month old into her arms. Aden’s hands follow the progress of Harley’s head, covering them as soon as she’s settled in Alicia’s arms.

Mere seconds after Harley is settled into Alicia’s chest, she quiets, and the only noises that can be heard from the little baby are her soft whimpers. Alicia can feel her heart melt even more as she watch’s Aden whisper indiscernible words to his sister, for a second Alicia even thinks that what she hears is a lullaby.

Finally, the small group reaches the Abigail, and Alicia has to leap off the raft as quickly as possible to get out of the way of the un-loading team. She cradles Harley close as she rushes into the yachts cabin to further separate her from the loud bangs of the bombs dropping in the background. She hears the patter of small feet behind her as she descends lower into the boat, going deeper and deeper until she sees an open door, leading to a room full of bunks. She hurries in and sits on a bed. Aden rushes in after her and the cabins light allows her to finally see his face properly. She takes notice of his swollen eyes and flushed cheeks, making it obvious that he had been crying. The sight makes her heart clench painfully.

“When will Mama be back?” Aden asks, struggling to crawl onto the bed that Alicia and Harley are currently perched on, his small legs making it difficult for him. It takes a few tries, but he is finally able to jump up half way and then swing his legs up so that he’s lying on his stomach by the time that he’s done. He pants for a minute before he rolls over and sits up, scooting closer to the two girls. He reaches out and grabs one of Harley’s flopping hands.

“I don’t know sweetie, but she’ll be okay, she’s a tough woman.” Alicia places her hand on his knee in a gesture of comfort.

“I know. She told me that she’s a bada- a badarse! She said that she’s a badarse!” he bounces as he repeats the word that he had heard his mother speak.

“She is most definitely a badass indeed.” Alicia laughs at the little boy whose demeanor has taken a complete turn.

“Ma, ma, ma, ma,” Harley babbles waving her hands at Alicia. Alicia smiles at the girl and grabs her left hand, waving it back in forth quickly, causing the girl to laugh once again. Aden smiles and leans over his sister, who turns her attention to him in an instant. The second her eyes settle on him he starts making faces, trying to get his sister to laugh even more.

That’s how they pass the time. Completely ignoring the outside world and doing their best to make little Harley laugh. They’re actually having such a nice time that they almost don’t notice the sound of the motorboat re-approaching. When he finally registers the noise, Aden’s head snaps up and he looks Alicia straight in the eye before smiling. Before she knows it the four-year-old is off the bed and running out the door.

“Mama!” His screech trails behind him, making Alicia and Harley wince slightly. “Mama, mama, mama!” 

Alicia chuckles as she slowly makes her way up the stairs towards where she can hear the commotion of the mother son reunion.

“MAMAAA!” She hears as quick footsteps pass over her head. At the noise Harley starts wiggling excitedly. Alicia can’t help but laugh as the baby starts to babble once again.

“Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma,” Harley goes on and on. Alicia finally rounds the top of the stairs and sees Elyza on her knee’s hugging the young boy close. Alicia watches as the blonde buries her nose further into the boys neck before pulling back and grabbing his face with both hands. The young one says something to Elyza, causing her to smile and lean forward to kiss his forehead. He giggles and pulls away, allowing her to look up and locate Alicia behind him. She smiles at Alicia before rising and reaching for the girl who is still calling, “Ma, ma, ma, ma!”

“Hey there, Sweet Pea!” She holds the girls and starts peppering her face in wet kisses, causing the small girl to squeal in even more joyful laughter.

“If you can’t get your child to refrain from making that noise then feel free to get off my boat. I do no need you attracting more attention than is necessary, and if you don’t feel the need to stop it, then I have no problem kicking you off my boat.” Strands voice comes from Elyza’s left, and she can’t help but chuckle at the weak threat.

“Oh, you wouldn’t do that? Now would you?” she asks him in her baby voice, looking at Harley as she talks. Smiling when the baby smiles. “No you wouldn’t! No you wouldn’t! Because you need us! Yes, you do! Yes, you do!”

She assists Harley in clapping, and turns to face the man, and continues to clap her hands towards him.

“I don’t need you or anyone on this ship.” He straightens his back and steps closer to the blonde, trying to intimidate her, but failing miserably.

“Oh, I beg to differ mate. You need us. You want to know how I know that?” She continues with the baby voice, not even bothering to glance back in his direction.

“Sure, please, enlighten us.”

“First, Ain’t no one here that can kill those things as well as I do. Second, I’m a trained nurse; was going to be a doctor, you see. Third? Well. Third is that Aden here, would be able to take you down faster than you could blink an eye.” She ruffles her son’s hair and smiles at him when he snuggles his back to her front, peering up at the man in front of him.

“I highly doubt that.” Strand waves his hand dismissively.

“You may doubt it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true,” she tells him with a plastered on smile.

“How can you expect me to believe that a four-year-old boy can take on a fully grown man like myself?” Strand scoffs at the young mother. Elyza shakes her head at the foolish man trying to contain her laughter.

Everyone else in the room watches on with anxious looks on their faces.

“You make that judgement based off of his age, but you don’t know what it was like for us when we were growing up. It was hell for me, so when he was old enough, I made sure that he’d at least be able to defend himself long enough to get to me.” Elyza tells the man with a more serious lilt to her voice now.

“Prove it. Prove that this young man here, can actually defend himself.” Strand waves his arms in exasperation and waits for Elyza to respond.

“Okay, fine. But don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” Elyza chuckles to herself before looking back down at Aden, who has been messing with one of her hands. “Hey, Aden?”

“Yeah, Mama?” he responds, his wide eyes looking up at her with innocence.

“Peas.”

Before anyone can blink, the small boy is flying forward and punching Strand as hard as he can in the junk. When the man bends over in pain, Aden takes the opportunity, to poke him in both of his eyes that are now within his reach. As Strand brings his hands to his eyes, Aden searches for the closest, hard object, which happens to be the boat’s log, and he grunts as he raises it over his head and brings it down on Victor’s head. It’s not hard enough to do any real damage, but it was enough to stun the man and knock him to the floor.

Everyone stares in shock as the boy backs away from strand when Elyza approaches. She pushes on the man’s shoulder with her foot until he is lying face up, and plants her booted foot on his chest. She holds out her hand, and Aden is all too willing to oblige her for a high-five.

“That’s my boy!” she laughs gleefully, before looking back down at Strand. “What did I say? You’re gonna need us.”

She lifts her foot off his chest and offers him a hand up. Strand stares at her for a solid minute before grabbing her hand and allowing her to haul him up.

“You and I are going to get along just fine,” he tells her, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“Good to hear,” she smiles back. She then turns and gives her son another high-five. She starts to usher him back towards the stairs, grabbing their bags along the way, and slinging them over the shoulder opposite of Harley. “Now, if you’ll excuse us. The three of us need to go find a room. Preferably one with an extra-large bed, and a lock. Who know what I could get up to when the kids are distracted… wouldn’t want to… get interrupted.” She winks at Alicia with her last statement, causing the brunette’s cheeks to burn brighter than they ever have before.

Everyone watches as the small family descends down the stairs. Alicia starring dumbly after the oldest blonde, her mouth gaping like a fish’s.

“I know I’ve said this before,” Nick starts, “but holy shit, she is so fucking hot.”

Below, the blonde starts to laugh when she doesn’t hear anyone object to Nick’s statement. Damn right she’s hot! She smiles as she watches Harley yawn, and ushers her children into the room at the end up the hall that Aden is pulling her towards. The room has two beds; one queen, and one twin that’s placed in the corner.

“Perfect choice baby,” she tells Aden, patting him on the back, the boy grins up at her before walking over to the bed in the corner and falling face down onto the surface with a groan. Elyza sets the bags in a small circle on her bed, re-enforcing the walls with the extra pillows, (really, she only needed one), and sets Harley in the middle, rubbing her stomach until she’s snoring softly. When she’s finished she rises again and surveys the room with a happy grin.

“Perfect choice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE REVIEW!


	5. Parkour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elyza agrees with a decision that makes her feel like a monster, but she will always do what is best for her family. Always. (Rest of S2E1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to clarify real quick. Elyza is not an irresponsible parent! She does everything for a reason! EVERYTHING she does, she does for a reason. You'll see what I'm getting at in the chapters that are coming up. Also, I'm sorry it took me so long to update, this chapter took me awhile to write. Hope you enjoy! PLEASE REVIEW!

The next morning Elyza is eased awake by the gentle rocking of the boat. She slowly started shifting her right hand back and forth, rubbing Harley’s stomach softly, knowing that it’s the way that she likes being woken up. She pushes herself up on her elbows, chest, barely touching the top of Harley’s little protective wall, and she leans down and starts pressing gentle kisses all over her face, until the baby awakes. When Harley realizes that it’s her mom who woke her, and is still kissing her, she starts giggling up a storm.

When she quiets down, Elyza looks towards the corner of the room and sees that Aden is still sleeping. She smiles to herself as she picks Harley up and sets her on her hip, walking over to the snoring four-year-old. Delicately she sets Harley down so that she’s sitting on her brother’s chest. Aden stirs, but still doesn’t wake at the new weight. Upon realizing that she is sitting on her brother, Harley leans forward and starts patting his face.

“‘Den, ‘Den, ‘Den, ‘Den,” she continues patting his face softly, causing him to scrunch is nose and try to push her away.

“Sister no.” Harley continues patting his face. “Sister stop.” Pat, pat, pat. “Sister noooo. Stop it!”

When Harley continues patting his face he reaches up and start tickling her belly. Harley shrieks with laughter, and Elyza can’t do anything but smile at her two amazing kids.

“What’s all this racket?” Elyza turns to see Alicia opening the door to their room with a smile on her face. When Elyza sees the brunette, she can’t even try to stop the smile that spreads across her face.

“Sister won’t get off!” Aden calls to her. “Help! Help!”

Alicia watches as Aden continues to tickle Harley. “Oh, no. We can’t have that now can we?”

“No! No!” Aden responds to her giggling. What he doesn’t notice is the wink that she shoots Elyza as she goes to lift Harley of the boy’s chest.

As soon as baby Harley is clear, Elyza dives onto her son. Aden squeals as his mother begins to tickle him.

“Mama-a-a! Stop it!”

“No!” Elyza renews her vigor.

“Please!” He can’t stop his laughter. “Mama, please!”

“Say it!” Elyza tells her wiggling son.

“Oh-oh, mi-mighty,” he struggles to speak through his laughter but continues none the less, “surpeme-”

“Supreme.” Elyza corrects her son, smiling fondly and flicking his ear.

“Ow! Supreme ovelord-”

“Overlord.” Another flick and unrelenting tickles.

“Ow Mama! Overlord. You win. There! Now Mama stop!” Aden begs his mother, still flailing on the bed trying to get away.

“Fine. But this isn’t over buddy.” She gives him the ‘I’m watching you’ signal, then proceeds to get off his bed.

“Well, it will have to wait until at least after breakfast, so let’s get a move on.” Alicia gestures to the room’s exit.

“Aye, Aye, Captain!” Elyza salutes her before taking Harley from her arms and exiting the room. The word ‘Captain’ stirs something foggy in Alicia’s memories, but she can’t think of what.

As he moves to pass her, Aden turns towards Alicia, and in a serious manner that does not belong in a four-year-old, he bow’s to her and curtly says, “Captain.” And with that he’s racing after his mother and sister.

_And as he goes, Alicia sees a flash of a boy, much older than Aden is now, but still bearing his resemblance, bowing and saying, “Heda.” In the flash she watches as the boy exits the large room, passing a dirty, yet familiar looking blonde in the process._

And just like that the flash is gone, and all that Alicia is left with is one word; Heda.

“Heda,” she says to herself as she dazedly starts heading up the stairs. “Heda.”

It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t figure out what it meant. Her thoughts are interrupted by her mother’s voice, calling her up to eat. She shakes her head, trying to physically get rid of the odd images that had flashed before her eyes. When she enters the dining area her thoughts are expelled as she witnesses the blonde family participating in their own little food fight. She laughs to herself as she notices that all the youngest Lex has succeeded in doing is cover herself in food.

Alicia smiles when she realizes that the little family has purged the group of all gloomy thoughts. She was happy to see that the Lex family antics was helping people forget all of the bad shit that was happening in the world, and helping them to enjoy life. This is the first time that she’s seen her mother laugh since this whole thing has started.

She chuckles to herself at the happy scene in front of her, reflecting on how glad she is that these three people managed to pop into their lives when the group un-knowingly needed the, most.

* * *

 

“Once the wench is set there’s a switch inside the trunk,” Strand tells Nick and Elyza as they haul in the raft.

“Shouldn’t you be on the bridge?” Daniel asks Strand, who is jogging up the steps to a higher level of the yacht, where Alicia and Madison are standing, both with coffee cups in their hands as well.

“The boat will tell me if there’s an obstacle,” Strand tells Daniel, continuing up the next flight of stairs.

“How far can it take us?” Madison asks him before he can disappear completely.

“Three thousand miles, more if we don’t stress the engines.” Strand stops running when he finally reaches the top of the boat

“That’ll give us options,” Daniel calls up to the man.

“Sure,” Strand starts, “we can make it all the way to El Salvador. We can survive on the Abigail for quite some time.”

“I hope you’re right mate!” Elyza calls up to him, raising her own mug of coffee in a salute to the older man. “‘Cause it’d be a right shame to die of dehydration when you’re surrounded by water! That would be a bitch!”

“Don’t you worry, it’ll last.”

“Alright. But if you’re wrong I call dibs on your share of the water,” Elyza laughs at her own joke, causing the brunette beside her to shake her head.

“Hey now,” Ofelia says as she walks out onto the deck, Harley in her arms and Aden in tow. “I’m sure we’d all be able to work out a way to split his share evenly amongst all of us.”

“We’ll have to see.” Elyza pulls Harley out of Ofelia’s arms and into her own smiling broadly. “I mean; I did call dibs. Isn’t that right Aden?”

“Yup, yup, yup!” He says as he moves to hug her legs.

“Boom.” Elyza deadpans, and she keeps it together really well, until Alicia cracks at the look on Elyza’s face. Serious seems to be a foreign concept for those features. They all giggle, only quieting when Daniel picks up a rifle and places himself on the set of stairs to the right and below them.

“Mama, I can’t find my toof-brush,” Aden tells Elyza, pulling on her shirt sleeve.

“Did you finish your breakfast?” Elyza asks the boy, who nods in return.

“Yeah, I had ser-al.”

“Cereal?” She corrects looking up at Ofelia for confirmation, receiving a nod and a smile from the dark haired woman.

“Yeah, yeah, I had cereal,” Aden tells her, still pulling on her sleeve. “I can’t find my toof-brush, and you said we brush our teef twice a day! I forgot last night! And I can’t find it!”

“Okay baby, let’s go get your toothbrush,” Elyza tells him, moving to head inside the boat, mumbling a “thank you” to Ofelia as they pass, the older woman following the trio inside, as far as the couches, and plopping down.

Elyza continues down the stairs, blowing raspberries on her daughter’s stomach as they go, making the girl shriek with laughter. The family reaches their self-appointed room, and Elyza makes a beeline for her backpack. When she zips it open, she digs around until she finds the zip-lock bag with two toothbrushes, floss, and a tube of recently open toothpaste. She pulls it out of the bag with a small, “Aha!” and ushers her won into the bathroom. She stops Aden in front of the sink and gives him his toothbrush, now bearing a layer of toothpaste.

“Wait, Mama, you can’t forget the toof song. You need to do the toof song.” Aden looks up at her expectantly, lowering his hand.

“Alright, alright! Like I could forget you little bugger.” Elyza smiles to herself recalling his favorite teeth-brushing song, before she begins the song with the tune of ‘Do Your Ears Hang Low?’ “Are your teeth clean and white? Do you brush them left and right?....”

By the time that they’re done, Aden is smiling widely at the mirror, inspecting his work. “Okay Mama,” he tells her, “your turn.”

Before Elyza can even make a move for her toothbrush she hears distant yells from outside. She places her daughter in the empty bathtub, and tells Aden to stay put before she races up the stairs towards the noises. She races through the living room, seeing Ofelia still sitting on one of the couches in the living room. Barely sparing the other woman a glance, Elyza rushes past and out onto the deck.

“Oh god,” she hears Madison breathe as she approaches the railing that the others are standing at. At the sight before her she freezes. A small life boat, with no less than twenty people drifts with the current about a hundred yards away.

“Mayday! Mayday!” Could be heard coming from the lifeboat but no one knows what to do about it.

“What are we going to do?” Alicia asks, receiving no response from the women beside her. “Mom?”

“Go get Travis,” Madison tells her daughter as she turns to run up to the third level, trying to locate Strand.

“We need to help them,” Alicia tells Elyza as she runs into the yacht in search of the older man. She fails to notice the hard set of the blonde’s jaw and her cold stare.

“We can’t help them,” Elyza says to the open air in front of her, forgetting about the two men on the deck below her.

“Why is that?” Nick calls up to her, shielding his eyes against the sun. She turns her head towards him, but keeps her eyes on the overflowing life boat.

“There will always come a time when you have to ask the question, ‘us or them’ and my answer every time will be ‘us’.” Elyza turns her back to the two men in time to see Alicia and Travis approaching the railing to her left.

“We got company,” Daniel tells Travis, adjusting his grip on his gun.

“Shit,” Travis grumbles, grabbing onto the railing with both hands. “Where’s Madison?”

“She’s talking to Strand,” Alicia tells him. “We gotta get these people.”

Elyza scoffs quietly, but the brunette hears it. Alicia throws Elyza a glare then turns back to Travis.

“We’ve got women on board! Help us!” A man’s voice calls from the life boat.

“We’re gonna help them right?” Alicia asks Travis, who subtly shakes his head.

“Right now help us.” He turns to Alicia, and points towards the cabin of the yacht. “Inside there’s a radio. Listen to the channels, we’ve gotta get a track on where we can go that’s safe. Alright?”

“B-but, what about all these people?” she asks him. Once again Elyza scoffs and shakes her head.

“I’m gonna talk to Strand. If you can do that for us…. Right now.” She hesitates. “Go.”

Alicia nods and races past the blonde, shouldering her on her way inside. Alicia hears Elyza hiss in pain, and she feels a tinge of regret, but she chooses to ignore it as she runs to find the radio. She walks past Ofelia, who is still on the couch, and grabs the radio off of the cabinet next to the dining table. She turns when she hears footsteps, and she sees Elyza storm towards the stairs. She lifts the radio and follows after the girl.

“You just want to leave them. Didn’t you? What are you? Don't act like a monster!” Alicia asks the Elyza before the latter could enter her family’s cabin.

“Yes, Alicia, I do want to leave them. And that doesn't make me a monster because, I will do anything to protect my family. And knowing that I kept them safe is what allows me to sleep at night.” The brunette shakes her head in frustration. “As much as it may bother you Alicia, I will always put my family and the people I care about first. The amount of people on that boat was a danger to us all, and I will not put my family, or anyone else on this boat in danger. So if you have a problem with that, take it up with someone else, because I won’t change my mind.”

With that Elyza enters her cabin and shuts the door behind her. She leans against the door, and sighs, trying to ignore the constant pain that is throbbing through her body. She takes a few, slow, deep breaths, and pushes off of the door, heading towards the bathroom where her kids are waiting. When she opens the door, the sight before her makes her laugh. The bathtub is filled to the brim with bubbles, and inside it, her two kids, still clothed, are playing with a pair of rubber ducks. Aden, has a bubble beard, and Harley has a bubble hat. Both turn to look at her when they hear the door, and Aden has the decency to look guilty. Harley though, when she sees her mom, she giggles and stands, throwing the rubber ducky in the air and sending bubbles everywhere.

“What is going on?” Elyza asks with a stern voice, trying to hide her smile.

“I-I- we- we- we were ju- just taking a- a bath, Mama. It’s just a bath.” Aden stumbles over his words trying not to cry.

“Uh-huh. If this was a bath why are you still in your clothes?” Elyza asks with a small smile to let her son know he’s not actually in trouble.

“Th-the zipper on m-my jacket is stuck, an-and sister wouldn’t let me take her clothes off.” Aden once again stumbles over his words as he gestures wildly to his jacket and his sister.

“It’s okay baby, we can fix that, can’t we?” She walks over and kneels next to the tub. As soon as she’s down, both of her kids, mainly Aden, brighten. He laughs when Elyza reaches in and splashes him. “Let’s get you clean, huh buddy?”

* * *

 

The next time that the family leaves their cabin it’s to attend Liza’s funeral. They didn’t have much, but they did try to dress for the funeral. Elyza was in all black, Harley was wearing a navy blue dress with a black bow in her hair, and Aden was wearing a tuxedo t-shirt with his hair slicked back. As they head towards the stairs they run into nick and Ofelia, the former of which balks a little bit at the site of Elyza’s bandages.

“Hey…. Do you want help with your bandage?” he asks Elyza. “That doesn’t look so good.”

The three adults pause to look at the bandage that is clearly visible under Elyza’s tank-top.

“Liza said it would take some time to heal,” Ofelia informs the young man who shrugs in return.

“I’m actually pretty good with that stuff,” he informs the two women, he’s surprised when he sees the brunette nod and say, “I bet you are.”

“I can manage.” Elyza grabs her sons hand and pushes past the two people in their way.

“Okay,” Nick tells her. “Hey, if you put ointment directly on the… the pad. Then cover it, it hurts less.”

“Thanks,” Elyza pauses on the stairs to look at Nick.

“And ice,” he adds, “for the pain…. And vodka, lots and lots of vodka.”

The blonde shakes her head and continues up the stairs leaving Ofelia to watch Nick retreat further into the boat.

* * *

 

Everyone was on the deck for Liza’s funeral, spread out, but paying attention to what Travis was saying.

“-and she could be fierce…. Oh my god. She was so strong, and… it was painful sometimes.” Travis started laughing because he didn’t know what else to do. He looks up at the people surrounding him and locks eyes with Elyza. She gives him a soft smile and a small nod for him to continue.

“And the best thing that we ever did, together, was our son.” Out of the corner of her eye, Elyza can see Chris’s head shoot up to look at his father. “Who she loved more than anything, or anyone.”

Travis looks at Chris, giving him a small nod to let him know that it’s his turn to pay his respects. Slowly, Chris approaches the table where his mother is laid, not saying a word. He stands there and stares at her pale face for a few seconds before he moves again. Before anyone can make a move to stop him, he’s covering his mom back up in the sheet, and tipping her over the edge, letting her slide off the table.

Everyone, looks at him in shock, and Harley starts crying from the way his actions startled her. The group watches him walk away, unsure of what to say to him. He stalks back into the boat and moves towards the stairs. Travis takes a deep breath and then follows after his son.

“Mama, what’s wrong? Why’d he do that? I wanted to say goodbye too,” Aden looks up at his mother with confusion. He waits for an answer, but all Elyza can do is shake her head.

“I know baby, but he’s hurting, and right now this is the only way that he feels he can deal with it.” Elyza pats his shoulder and pushes him towards the door of the cabin. She bounces Harley gently, trying to calm her down, but also trying not to cry out from the pain the movement causes her. “Now, let’s go set up for lunch yeah? I hear Mr. Daniel caught us a treat.”

They had just finished setting the table, and were relaxing on the couches when Alicia rushes into the sitting area.

“Travis!” she calls as she approaches him. “Travis, someone needs help, they’re sinking.”

“Who?” he asks as he sits down.

“Yeah,” Elyza says, sitting up straighter, bouncing Harley on her knee, “who?”

Alicia ignores her.

“Look, it’s just him, his brother, and his sister in law. Just three. We can manage that.”

“Like hell!” Elyza says, struggling to contain her anger towards the brunette.

“What’s this?” Madison asks as she approaches the group.

“Jack,” Alicia responds, sparing Elyza a glance when she scoffs before looking back at her mother. “His name is Jack.”

“Who the hell is Jack?” They all turn when they hear Strands voice. Everyone hesitates to answer the man so they look at each other and keep silent. “You’re gonna make me ask twice?”

“He’s on a fishing boat near here,” Alicia reluctantly starts. “And he’s sinking.”

“You talked to him.” It was more of a statement than a question. Unsure, Alicia looks up at her mother for a brief moment.

“Yes, I talked to him,” she responds, she has to ignore the pained, and exasperated sigh from Elyza behind her.

“Did you tell him anything about us?” Strand asks her.

“I- No, I didn’t tell him anything important.”

“What didn’t you say him Alicia? What didn’t you tell him?” Everyone in the room cringes as Strands starts to raise his voice. Aden freezes in his spot on the ground, and Harley begins to whimper in fear.

“Calm down,” Travis tries to placate the man.

“This isn’t a game!” Strand yells back. “It’s mob rules on land. Do you think it’s any better here?”

“Back off,” Travis starts, not even looking at Strand.

“What are you gonna do Travis? You feel strong?” Strand advances towards the man who just stands and looks at him. There’s a pause before Strand licks his lips and continues, “Please, let me,” he sniffs in anger, “explain the rules of the boat. Rule number one: it’s my boat. Rule number two: it is _MY_ boat. And if there remains any confusion about rules number one and two then I offer you rule number thre-”

“Wait,” Elyza interrupts him, “let me guess, ‘it’s your fucking boat’?”

“Rule number three,” Strand repeats, glaring at the blonde, “It is my goddamn boat.”

“Eh, close enough.” Elyza tells anyone and no one at the same time. Just saying it to say it before Strand continues once again.

“If it weren’t for me,” he gestures to the rest of the group, “you all would be burned.” No one responds, not even Elyza. “You’re welcome.”

They watch as Strand leaves the room, to head back up to the wheel room. Everyone disbands, leaving Alicia and the Lex family in the living room area. They’re left in a deafening silence, Alicia refusing to look at the family. She actually flinches when Elyza breaks the silence.

“Why’d you do it?” she asks. “Why’d you talk to him?”

All Alicia can do is shrug. She doesn’t give a verbal answer which bothers the blonde. Alicia still hasn’t even bothered to look at her, not wanting to see the look of betrayal in her eyes. When she doesn’t receive a response the blonde laughs with self-deprecation, “Right. Why would you tell me? I’m as bad as Strand aren’t I?” No response. “Right. Well, us three are going to go put lunch on the table so if you’d excuse us! Come on baby.”

She grabs Aden’s hand and leads him into the kitchen. She doesn’t spare Alicia another glance as she passes by. The brunette still sitting stoically.

Before she knows it, Alicia is roused from her thoughts by the smell of the food that is being put on the table. She rises, puts on a small, fake smile, and walks into the dining area.

“What’s that?” she asks when she gets sight of the main course.

“Eel,” Daniel responds. “It might not look like it, but it does taste really good. Please, sit, everything is ready.”

The family sits at the table all but Elyza fail to notice Chris, hood pulled over the majority of his face make his way towards the back of the boat. She brushes the sight aside, and continues to talk and laugh with the rest of the group. They continue happily until they hear a splash echo up to them from the back of the boat.

They all pause and look towards the noise. Then, altogether, they rush towards the back deck.

“Chris!” Nick calls. “Chris!”

Not even giving it a second thought, Elyza hands Harley to Madison and watches as Ofelia takes Aden’s hand. She gives Ofelia a nod before turning back towards the railing and making a run for it.

“Chris!” Nick calls again looking out over the water.

Without hesitating, Elyza plants a hand on the railing and vaults over the back, not bothering with the stairs. She falls towards the bottom deck with a shout of, “Parkour!” And when she hits the deck she rolls into the landing, refusing to cry out in pain when her injured shoulder and body meets the hard wood. When she finishes the role she is standing right at the edge of the deck. She takes a deep breath and dives into the water.

The group watches in shock as the blonde moves into action, rushing to the railing after she jumped over, to make sure that she was okay. Aden laughs when he hears his mother shout ‘Parkour’ and shouts it back. The group watches in further amazement as Nick rushes down the stairs and dives in after her.

Alicia’s heart jumps into her throat as she watches the people she cares about go over the edge of the boat.

“Chris!” Travis calls, rushing down the stairs.

“Nick!” Madison calls, not making a move to go after her son.

“Woo! Go Mama!” Aden calls out excitedly, unaware of the serious of the matter.

There’s silence as the all wait for someone to resurface. As the silence drags on, Alicia begins to pace.

“What the hell man?” they all hear Chris say. They all look towards the voice and sigh in relief when they see the two boys, and Elyza, when her head finally resurfaces, further away than where the boys are. They can’t hear Nick’s response, but they do hear Elyza’s.

“So you’re telling me I just jumped in the ocean to save your ass, and you didn’t need saving?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to swim.” Chris shrugs not looking at the blonde.

“Yeah, well, you can take your, ‘I just wanted to swim’ and shove it up your ass! You fucking asshole!” Ofelia giggles when she hears what Elyza said and she and the rest of the group wait for the trio to come back. When she sees that everyone is fine, Alicia slips away, unnoticed by everyone.

“Hey come on in,” Nick calls to the group. “The water’s fine.”

“Get out!” They hear Elyza yell, but they can’t see her. “Get out of the water! Go! Go!”

Just then the breeze clears the smoke, and the entire group gets a full view of the upturned boat and the pile of dead bodies that’s floating in the water. They also see the blonde Australian struggling with one of the bodies. Aden cries out in alarm when he sees his mother, and he moves to go to her, but is held back by Ofelia, who lifts the boy into her arms. The group watches as Elyza pulls a knife from god only knows where and stabs the walker, or swimmer in this case, in the head.

“Travis!” Madison calls, and the man rushes to the raft, starting it without hesitation and rushing to his son’s side. “Oh my god.”

“Where’d she go? Where’d Nick go?” Ofelia asks looking for any sign of them.

“Chris get out of there!” Travis calls to his son, not entirely focused on Nick, or Elyza, the latter of which just had to kill another walker.

Alicia hurries back to the group, when she sees that her brother is still surrounded by the walkers and isn’t making a move to get away.

“Nick!” Alicia calls to him, panic evident in her voice and in her features.

“I hear someone!” Nick calls back to her. With that he turns towards the upturned boat and swims towards it.

“ _NICK!_ ” Alicia screams, watching her brother helplessly. She watches as he swims into the boat, and she searches for a way to help. She almost sighs in relief when she sees the blonde making her way towards the raft. “ELYZA! Please! He’s my brother! Please! Help him!”

Everyone on the deck turns to her when she yells to the blonde. Then they turn back towards the water to see that Elyza is hesitating and has stopped her attempt to reach the raft that is coming towards her. And, as they watch, her head disappears under the water.

“ _NO! MAMA!_ ” Aden screams, trying to free himself from Ofelia’s grasp. “ _NO!_ ”

“Oh my god,” Madison breathes again, pulling a crying Harley closer to her chest.

* * *

 It’s quiet in the boat. That’s the first thing that Nick notices when his head breaks the surface.

“Nick!” he can hear people calling his name, but he pays them no attention, as he lets his eyes scan the flooded hull. He sees a book in a bag floating towards him. He reaches for it and tugs on it. He notices that it’s rope is attached to something, so he tugs harder. The rope gives, but with it comes a previously unnoticed walker.

“Aw!” he cries in surprise, struggling to push the walker off of him. As they struggle they move further away from the hole he entered the boat through. Just as the walker is about to take a nice bite out of his cheek, a knife tip pokes out of the now dead walker’s eye. Nick blinks in confusion, before the body is pushed away, and he sees Elyza, treading water in front of him.

“Okay dickweed, let’s go.” She gestures to the hole they both entered from.

“Nick! Elyza! Where are you?” the pair hears Travis call from outside of the boat. Thy both start moving towards their exit.

* * *

 

“We should be leaving now. Someone is joining us” Strand says as he races down the stairs to Madison. He, like the rest of the group, is looking out over the smoke covered water. Madison sends him a worried look before turning back towards the water

“TRAVIS!” she calls out. Everyone is frozen in fear and anticipation. Alicia is on the verge of tears, waiting for Elyza and Nick to resurface.

“It could be no one; it could be the ones who did that.” Strand stops right in front of Alicia and points to the wreckage. The young girl flinches at his implication.

After Strand disappears up the stairs, everyone turns back in time to see the boat split in half with a sudden, loud crack. They all watch in horror is it begins to sink.

“ _NO! MAMA!_ ” Aden sobs as he watches the boat go under.

“Look!” Daniel says, pointing towards the raft, where Travis, Chris, and Nick, are all struggling to lift a limp blonde onto the boat.

“It’s okay Aden! It’s okay!” Alicia tells the distressed four-year-old. Aden calms down at Alicia’s words, and looks in the direction that she is pointing. His relief is short lived when he sees that his mother isn’t moving.

Travis speeds the boat back to the yacht, and the other two boys try to catch their breath, as both anchor a part of Elyza down. Nick holds her head, and Chris holds her feet. As they approach the deck they can hear Madison and Aden shouting.

“We have to go! We have to go right now!” Madison yells as the raft pulls up to the yacht.

“Mama! Mama!” Aden cries, still trying to get out of Ofelia’s hold. He starts to thrash when Chris and Nick lift her onto the deck and lay her down.

“What?” Travis asks Madison, who hands Harley off to Alicia, who is standing at her side.

“Strand we’re clear!” Madison calls up to the man, and they all jump as the boat jolts to life.

“What’s going on?” Travis asks again, moving to kneel by Elyza’s side and examine her.

“Whoever did that? They’re coming back.” Madison tells him. He nods in understanding, and then turns back towards Elyza.

“Nick what happened? Is she bit?” He asks the young boy, before he can answer however, they hear the approach of tiny feet and look up in time to see Aden throw himself across his mother’s chest.

“Mama!” he cries.

“Ma! Ma! Ma!” Harley cries as well, reaching for her mother, struggling in Alicia’s grip. Alicia only tightens her hold.

When the boat capsized, it caught her leg,” Nick tells Travis. “She was almost completely out of the boat when it happened. A jagged piece of wood sliced down her calf. I think she passed out from the pain of everything. She shouldn’t’ve been in the water in the first place.”

“Yeah, well, tell that to Señor Grumpy Pants over there. If I hadn’t thought he needed help, I woulda just left him.” They all look down at her when they hear Elyza’s voice.

“Mama!” Aden squeals, throwing his arms around his mother’s neck.

“Ma!” Harley shrieks when she hears her mother’s voice. Elyza barely moves and she keeps her eyes closed, but she smiles as she hugs her son back.

“Are you bitten?” Travis asks her, but she just shakes her head no.

“Alright people, all hands on deck, I hear we’re about to have company, and I need a lot of help getting back inside. Sooo, plus, Ofelia, I’m gonna need your help tending to my boo-boos. I can’t do them all by myself.”

Travis, scoops Elyza up, and carries he back inside, setting her down gently on one of the many couches. As soon as she’s down, Aden is climbing onto her chest and snuggling close. When Alicia approaches, Elyza reaches out with her good arm and pulls her close as well.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. I promise, I’m okay,” Elyza reassures her kids, “I just have a small boo-boo. I’m gonna be okay. _We’re_ going to be okay, okay? No matter what. I promise.”

With those words she drifts off into sleep, her pain once again claiming her consciousness. Aden and Harley snuggle even closer, and after a while, they too fall asleep. Completely oblivious to the people around them and Ofelia, who is tending to Elyza’s wounds.

Right now, they were safe, and that is all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE REVIEW!!!!


	6. We All Fall Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia tries to mend fences. (Metaphorically speaking of course). Elyza is on bedrest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review! Comments are my motivation!  
> (This post was 13 pages long)

It’s been hours and Elyza is still on the couch. Alicia watches as the Lex family naps. The only one who is awake and moving is Harley. The small girl has pushed herself up into a sitting position, and is patiently waiting for her mother to wake. The baby places her hand on her mother’s cheek and leaves it there. The peaceful silence is disturbed by yelling coming from beneath them.

“Do you hear me?” Madison yells at Nick as she bangs on a door. “Are you out of your mind Nick?”

“I’m sorry,” they hear him respond in annoyance.

“I swear, if you do that again, I will leave you in the goddamn ocean! I shit you not!” She continues yelling. Alicia smiles when she hears Elyza snicker.

“I thought I heard something!” they hear Nick try to defend himself.

“What? What could you hear?” she asks him in exasperation.

“I don’t know! Something… bumping the hull!”

“Yeah, well you almost got yourself killed! You almost got Elyza killed! That’s not okay Nick!” Madison continues.

“Please!” Elyza scoffs, waving Harley’s hands in the air and making faces at the girl, causing her to giggle. “Nothing can kill me! Am I right? Am I right?” The small girl continues to giggle.

“We’re still trying to help people aren’t we?” they hear Nick ask Madison. There’s a long pause, and Alicia sucks in a breath, hopefully unnoticed by the blonde.

“Yes…. People that we can see!” she tries to reason with her son. There’s silence after that and before they know it, Travis, Madison, and Nick are hurrying towards the wheel room.

“Uh-oh!” Elyza tells Harley with and exaggerated worried expression. “Let’s go see what that’s all about, yeah?”

With that, Elyza gently eases herself out from under Aden and sets Harley on her hip, slowly limping towards the stairs.

She’s halfway up the stairs when she hears Madison talking, “-burned. The military burned it down. According to this, the Leanne just came from the south. Right there.”

Elyza’s progress up the stairs is slow, a sign that she knows isn’t good, but she continues to ignore anyway. She props her weight against the wall when she has the chance and uses it for support; helping her legs carry upper body and Harley towards the voices. She’s almost to the top when she hears Ofelia speak out.

“Wait a minute. I thought you said San Diego was safe!” When Elyza finally reaches the top of the stairs she notices that the panic in her voice is also present in her stance.

“I wouldn’t take this as gospel,” Strand tells her as he lifts the log book from Travis’s hands. “Did they even try to dock? Did they go ashore? How did they know?”

“The logs are clear. The last entry was yesterday. What is there to doubt?” Daniel asks Strand, clearly frustrated.

“If we’re going to San Diego, then we’ve gotta know what’s there!” Madison exclaims. Silently, Elyza nods her head in agreement, still surprised they haven’t noticed the lumbering, injured blonde, and her baby.

“Right now I’m trying to focus on what’s about to be here,” Strand tells her looking at his radar equipment. He turns to Daniel in order to ask him, “And what kind of weapon do you suppose would be big enough to sink that boat?”

“Fifty caliber machine gun.” Is the answer he receives from the older man.

“Military grade. The kind of weapon that can only be mounted… on a larger vessel,” he points to a ship on the radar. “Larger vessel.”

“You sure it’s following us?” Travis asks Strand.

“I have zigged and I have zagged. The course corrects every time,” Travis nods at Strand’s response.

“It could be them,” Daniel states.

“It could be Alicia’s radio quest, for all we know, which is why; we don’t talk to strangers,” Strand says to Madison.

“Aw man!” they all turn at the sound of the blonde’s voice. “But I hear that strangers are the go to people for free candy!”

Ofelia stifles a laugh as she rushes to the blonde’s side.

“What are you doing?” Ofelia asks Elyza, taking Harley from her arms, allowing Madison to slip under her arm and assist her to the couch to their right. “You should be resting right now! If you over do it, which you already have, you could get really sick, and nothing will heal properly.”

“I didn’t want to miss out on all the fun,” Elyza says as they set her on the couch and Ofelia sits next to her, Harley on her lap. She gestures to Strand, “Please, continue.”

Strand sighs and rolls his eyes at her, turning back to the monitors.

“Whoever it is, we’re not losing it. And it’s faster,” Strand tells the group.

“Fine,” Ofelia starts, “where do we go? What do we do now?”

“Those are great questions Ofelia!” Elyza tells her cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.

“Thank you Elyza,” she plays along. Then looking back at Strand, “So?”

Strand pulls out a map and walks to the table in the middle of the room, laying it down for everyone to see.

“We hide,” he tells everyone as they gather around. “We’ll lose them on the radar if we stick to the coast….” He points to an island. “This one, has a cove.”

Travis scans the map, “Shoot, so does this one, just as deep…. And this is a wildlife refuge. There’ll be a ranger’s station there.”

“Good eye Travis!” Elyza calls from the couch, she just shrugs when everyone ignores her.

“Which will probably be abandoned,” Strand counters.

“Sure, but a ranger’s station is gonna have shortwave radios, supplies-” Travis continues, only to be cut off once again by Elyza.

“And weapons, believe it or not,” she chimes in, leaning her head back on the couch. Travis nods at her words and turns back to Strand.

“We could gather information.” Travis looks up at the rest of the group, hoping to see understanding and agreement in their eyes.

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Madison tells Strand, who hesitates at her words. There’s a long pause in which he looks back and forth between the people surrounding him.

“Catrina Island it is,” he agrees.

“Hmmm, that’s a great name for an island. Catrina. Caaaa-triiii-naaa,” everyone turns to look at Elyza as she says this, confused as to why she was acting this way. They look o Ofelia as the blonde continues to babble.

“Her meds have kicked in, add that to the fever and the pain…. She’s gonna be loopy for a while. Or she’s just going to sleep.” Ofelia informs the surrounding group.

“Let’s get her to bed then,” Travis says, moving towards the blonde. “Daniel?”

The man nods at his name and moves to the girl’s other side.

“Wait!” Elyza resists their hold. “I can’t sleep yet! I need to talk to Nick!”

“Why do you need to talk to Nick?” Daniel asks her.

“Shhh!” she responds to him. “It’s a secret! So, shhh!”

“Okay Elyza,” Ofelia tells her, lifting Harley higher up on her hip. “I’ll go get Nick for you.”

“No!” Elyza exclaims. Turning, or trying to, as quickly as she can towards the woman. “No! you stay with kids!” She points to herself. “Trust you…. They trust you too.”

They stay that way until Ofelia nods. Satisfied, Elyza allows herself to be dragged down the stairs back towards the living room area, where Aden is still asleep on one of the couches. They set Elyza down on the couch perpendicular to him, and Madison runs off to locate Nick. Alicia watches all of this from her spot at the dining table.

“What’s wrong with her?” Alicia asks her mom as she passes.

“The antibiotics are kicking her ass, that’s what.” Alycia nods as her mother descends the stairs to the level below.

Not twenty seconds later she’s reemerging with Nick in tow.

“She’s in there,” Madison points to the living room, where Aden is no awake and, like his sister, is laughing at Elyza’s babbling.

“What does she want?” Nick asks Madison. She just shrugs her shoulders and walks back downstairs with a, “No idea!” thrown over her shoulder.

With that Nick walks into the living room, expecting some sort of beating. His expectations only increase when she asks for privacy. That is, until she asks Ofelia to stay as well. When Ofelia nods, Nick silently sighs in relief.

As everyone heads downstairs, Alicia decides that it might be best if she went with them. As she walks down the stairs she looks over to the people in the living room and feels a pain in her chest at the thought that Elyza feels like she can’t be trusted. She blinks back the tears in her eyes and continues to the room that she shares with Nick. She sighs when she throws herself on the bed and resigns herself to the fact that she’s going to have to find some way to make up for her mistake. She doesn’t know why, but she _needs_ the blonde woman to trust her. She just needs her to.

* * *

 

“Alright,” Nick begins, “if this is about earlier then I’m sor-”

“It’s not.” Elyza cuts him off, seemingly no longer impaired by her medication. “I need your help.”

“Wait,” Ofelia says. “Were you faking that whole thing?”

“I don’t want anyone to know that what we’re talking about is actually, legitimately, important. They can’t know about this, no one, not even me.” Elyza sits herself up higher as she whispers to the pair. She watches Aden play on the ground before she continues, “If those people catch up to us, I need to protect my family. And if everyone on this boat knows about this, then I don’t think that they’ll stay safe. I don’t know what Chris, Strand, or even Daniel might say if they felt they, or their family was in danger.”

“Ooo-kay?” Nick says. “What do you want us to do?”

“Nick I need you to find a hiding place,” Elyza tells him simply. At her words, both Nick and Ofelia glance at each other.

“Ummm…” Ofelia trails off.

“What?” Nick asks her.

“I need you to find a hiding place for Aden and Harley. A place that’s big enough for them to hide in for a long period of time if necessary. A place that no one can find, and where they’ll be safe,” Elyza tells them, reaching out her arms and beckoning for Ofelia to pass her Harley. Ofelia obliges her while Nick thinks of what to say next.

“Why do you think I’ll be able to do it?” Nick asks her. She looks him right in the eye for a solid thirty seconds before she answers his question.

“Because you’re an addict. And I know for a fact, that an addict will do anything to hide and protect their addiction. That means that you’re good at hiding, both things, and people. So I need you to do anything to hide and protect my kids.” Elyza tells him. When she’s finished talking it’s hard for him not to stare at her.

“If you need him to find a place for them to hide, then am I here to help?” Ofelia asks, sitting on the chair across from Elyza.

“Kind of, Harley and Aden trust you, if anything happens to me then they’ll need you, and for that I need you to be able to take care of them. In order for you to be able to do that you need to know where to hide them and where to find th-”

Before Elyza can finish, Ofelia cuts her off.

“Then why can’t you know where the hiding place is?”

“Because if something really does happen, I’ll be the one trying to buy us time. That’ll make me a target, and once I’m a target I’m as good as dead.” Elyza looks away from the pair in front of her and focuses on her hand that is stroking Harley’s head, just the way she likes it.

“You don’t know that,” Nick tells her. At his words the blonde laughs, then winces in pain.

“Oh, I do. Trust me, I do. I’m not a talker, and when they realize that I’m hiding something, I’ll be the first to go. They won’t anticipate me having “told” you two.”

“You don’t know that they’ll actually catch up to us!” Ofelia tells her. Once again Elyza laughs.

“In this world, Ofelia, we must be prepared for anything.” They sit in silence, Elyza in peaceful silence, Ofelia and Nick in thoughtful silence. They sit like that until Nick finally breaks the silence.

“Alright I’m in.”

“Me too,” Ofelia tells the blonde who smiles happily and lays back on the couch with a sigh.

“I knew you two wouldn’t be able to say ‘no’ to this face; it’s to fucking adorable! Where… do you… think… Harley got it… from?” Elyza mumbles as she drifts off to sleep.

* * *

 

Alycia passes Nick on her way back upstairs for dinner. When she realizes that he’s walking in the other direction, she asks him, “Where are you going?”

“Exploring!” is his simple reply. She’s about to follow him when she’s intercepted by Ofelia.

“Hey!” Ofelia greets her.

“Hey!” Alicia replies, unsure of what the former is doing. “Excuse me, I was just about to g-”

“You know what?” Ofelia interrupts her. “I could really use some help setting the table for dinner. The food’s ready but everything else isn’t, so…. And extra pair of hands wouldn’t be remiss.”

“Uh, yeah sure,” Alicia glances over Ofelia’s shoulder and notices that her brother disappeared anyway, so the idea of her staying down here is pointless. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“Canned corn and bass.” Ofelia enters the kitchen area, Alicia close behind, and hands her a stack of plates. Alicia reenters the dining room and lifts her head to get a peek inside the living room. In there she can see Elyza sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, playing with Harley and Aden, all of them playing with tiny Beanie-Babies.

When everyone finally sits down at the table, she realizes that the Lex family still hasn’t joined them. Looking up, she sees that they’re still in the living room playing with their toys.

“Aren’t they going to join us?” she asks her mother who shakes her head.

“No, they already ate. It’s almost Aden’s bedtime anyway,” Ofelia tells her.

“You know their bedtime?” Alicia asks her. She doesn’t know why, but she gets angry when she hears this. “Why?”

“Because Elyza asked me to help Aden brush his teeth before bringing him back up here for bed.” Ofelia tells her simply. “I even had to learn a song for him to brush to; which is adorable by the way.”

Alicia remains silent, occasionally glancing back at the family. She dejectedly pushes the food around on her plate and tries to find the will to eat. She’s about to excuse herself when Ofelia interrupts her thoughts.

“She’s not mad at you, you know. She’s just trying to understand, she thought you two were making progress as friends, and then when she found out about Jack. She thought that her trust in you was a two-way street.”

“How do you know all of this?” Alicia asks Ofelia, somewhat dumbfounded by what she has heard.

“I find that people are a little more forthcoming with information when they are as high as a kite.” Ofelia tells her with a knowing smile.

“So she just told you that?”

“I don’t think she knew she was telling me that, but yeah. She told me that.” Ofelia turns back to her food. Alicia pauses, considering her options in how to approach the blonde. Finally deciding that the direct approach was the best, she stands, cutting off the tables conversation, and takes her plate to the living room.

“Alicia? What’s wrong?” Her mother calls after her. Her question goes unanswered as she takes a seat on the couch, her left knee next to Elyza’s head.

“No eating on my couches!” Strand calls to her. He receives a slim middle finger as his response.

“Mind if I sit here?” Alicia asks Elyza. Elyza shrugs her shoulders, and before she can say anything to the brunette, Harley is in her lap, and Aden makes a beeline for Alicia’s lap. Silence between the two ensues as they both start playing separately with the individual children.

“I’m sorry,” Alicia finally breaks the silence. “I never meant to make you angry. I just needed someone who was… impartial, to talk to. Someone who didn’t know me, and didn’t want to. I just wanted someone who could help me forget. Like I said; I never meant to make you angry.”

“I’m not angry Alicia. I’m just-”

“I swear to god if you pull the mom card and say, “I’m just disappointed”, then I’m gonna slap you.” Alicia interrupts her, giving Aden’s stomach a little tickle, and shooting the blonde a glare.

“I wasn’t going to!” Elyza defends herself. Alicia looks at her skeptically. “I wasn’t! Honest! I was going to say that I’m just hurt. I thought that you and I were close, and that you actually trusted me. Maybe you did, then you learned that I willingly wanted to let those people on the raft die, so that we could be safe, and I became a monster. I became, someone you couldn’t trust, so you turned to a fucking stranger. It fucking hurts that I’m being punished for wanting to put my family first.” Elyza shrugs and brushes her hair behind her ear. Alicia’s eyes follow the movement, and her response to the blonde is delayed by what she glimpsed.

“What’s that behind your ear?” she asks Elyza.

“Something from the past,” Elyza responds curtly, though somewhat light-heartedly.

“And just so you know, I do trust you. I don’t know why but I do. I just don’t know how to deal with the way the world this world now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to cope with the decisions that we’re going to have to make in order to survive.”

“What you all need to understand is that we shouldn’t want to just survive. We should want to _live_. I make the decisions that I have to, to ensure that my kids are going to get the chance to really, truly, live. I don’t want just survival. Life should be about more than just surviving. Don’t we deserve better than that?” Elyza asks Alicia, not looking at the brunette. She wouldn’t have received an answer anyway, because Alicia’s mind was suddenly elsewhere.

_“You sent for me?” her thoughts are interrupted as she looks up from organizing her maps to look at the blonde who’d just entered her tent. She watches as the other girl approaches her, a cold look in her eye. She looks the blonde in the eye and responds softly._

_“Yes.” She pauses and tries to swallow past the lump in her throat before continuing. “Octavia has nothing to fear from me.” Another pause in which the blonde blinks in surprise, and she personally has to look away. “I do trust you Clarke.”_

_“I know how hard that is for you,” Clarke responds softly, taking a cautious step towards her. She looks back at the blonde and feels as though her heart is going to burst._

_“You think our ways are harsh… but it’s how we survive.” She tells Clarke, taking another step closer to the smaller girl._

_“Maybe life should be about more than just surviving.” Clarke looks away. “Don’t we deserve better than that?”_

_Her eyes move to the blonde’s lips as she’s talking, and her heart overpowers her head._

_“Maybe we do.” With that she surges forward and kisses the blonde gently. There’s a pause before the blonde responds, and returns the kiss, causing her heart to soar._

“Maybe we do,” Alycia echoes, not knowing where that vision came from. She was still a little dazed when she realized that Aden had fallen asleep on her. As soon as she realized this apparently so did Ofelia, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere to go get Aden ready for bed.

“Thank you Ofelia!” Elyza calls after the woman, climbing to her feet herself and then settling on the other couch, a babbling Harley clutched closes to her chest.

“Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma,” the little girl says, playing with Elyza’s hair. They blonde falls asleep quickly, and not long after Aden is carried back upstairs by Ofelia, and is laid on the couch that Alicia is currently occupying.

Alicia sits there and watches the young boy sleep peacefully. She’s so entranced she doesn’t even notice that the boat has stopped. She doesn’t even notice that her mom has entered the living room until she is handed a flash light and her mother says, “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Alicia asks as she rises from the couch.

“There’s a house up the way, their lights were on, which means there are people home. Now let’s go!” Her mother ushers her off the boat, then follows after her. When she is on the dock, Madison, turns and looks up at Strand.

“Are you coming?” Madison calls up to him.

“I’ll stay Make sure our radar friends have passed us. When he’s gone, we’re gone” Strand replies.

“Ofelia and I will keep you company” Daniel tells him, suspicious of the way the other man has been acting.

“Solitude doesn’t bother me.” Strand says, trying to turn the older man down.

“We insist!” Daniel says. Ofelia looks at her father with a bit of curiosity. She would’ve stayed anyway, she wanted to keep an eye on the Lex family, specifically the two younger Lex’s. She enjoyed looking after them because they remind her of all that is good in the world,

As Alicia makes her way up to the house with her family, her only thoughts are of the blonde back on the boat and the weird flashes of what appear to be visions that she’s been having lately.

* * *

 

Alicia makes her way up from her shared cabin, to the living room of the yacht. She’s about to sit and rest when she realizes that Nick is laying on one of the outdoor couches.

She pulls her comforter closer around her body and walks out onto the deck. Nick looks over at her and smiles.

“Hey, you want to know what the most underrated perk of the apocalypse is?” he asks her.

“Yeah,” she tells him begrudgingly.

“No planes. No noise pollution. No smog. Just, stars.” He looks up at the stars and sighs.

“Yep! Well, we definitely… stopped the climate crisis,” she tells him as she sits down near his feet. “Which is… awesome. Why are you up?”

“Why are you up?” he counters.

“I don’t know, drank too much wine…. My mind’s racing,” she tells him, snuggling further into her comforter. “Come on! What’s your excuse?”

“It’s these kids man….” He tells her. “They have seen more than their share you know?” Alicia’s mind immediately jumps to Harley and Aden. “Like, what they’re living in now, and what they’re gonna live in? It’s- I don’t know. Things are just never gonna be normal for them. You know?”

Alicia nods her head, thinking of how hard Elyza has worked to allow her kids to still be kids. It really pains her to think of all of the things that those two are going to miss out on now that they’ve begun living in the apocalypse.

“It’s- it’s not fair.” Nick finishes, looking out into the distance. Realizing who it is that Nick is really talking about, Alicia supplies him an answer.

“Yeah, well at least they’re prepared.”

“Yeah, they’re prepared like it’s the end-time,” he tells her.

“Isn’t it though?” she asks him.

“No, Alicia, this isn’t the rapture.” There’s a pause in which the two siblings try to think of what to say to each other. “So what else are you thinking about?”

“I don’t really know,” Alicia tells Nick. “Everything in my mind is so jumbled up right now, it would be easier to find Waldo colorblind than sort out my thoughts.”

“Damn, that sounds hard. Are any of these thoughts about a certain blonde mother of two?” Nick asks her, wiggling his eyebrows.

“No, Nick. I’m not thinking about mom.”

“I meant Elyza and you know it, you dork,” he tells her with a smile.

“I know, I know,” Alicia tells him “Yes, some of these thoughts are about her, but it’s not that simple. I don’t know what is going on up there, but whatever it is it’s making my head pound.”

“Well if you need help sorting it out little sis, let me know. I’m an expert on the cluttered mind. Plus, the sooner you sort whatever it is between you two out, the better. I have a feeling once you do you’ll be happier.”

“I know big bro. Thanks for listening.”

“Any time sis. Any time.”

* * *

 

Elyza wakes up the next day to the sound of Travis’s voice.

“-man’s kids just ’cause she says so.” She hears him say.

“Don’t do it because she says so, do it because I’m asking you too,” she hears Madison reply. “you’re not taking them Travis, you’re saving them!” There’s silence and Elyza can hear Madison walk over to a chair and sit down. “We can’t keep leaving people behind.”

“Let me talk to George,” Travis sighs. “’Kay? Let me talk to him.

Elyza opens her eyes and roles over on the couch, she winces as she tries to stretch, and sighs in relief when she sees her kids on the floor next to her, both playing silently. She sees Nick make his way inside and wonders whether she should approach him about her request or wait until he comes to her. She interrupts her own thoughts when she notices how dazed he seems, knowing that could only mean something bad.

“What’s wrong?” Madison approaches him.

“I think this household is planning on Jonestown-ing this whole family,” Nick tells them. At his words, Elyza slowly pushes herself into a sitting position and swings her legs over the edge of the couch. Seeing that she was awake Aden climbs up on the couch next to her, and Harley latches onto her right leg, in the manner that she does when she wants to be picked up. Elyza lifts her onto her lap as the conversation continues.

“What?” Travis asks.

“I found pills in his office,” Nick says. “I think it’s poison.”

“What? How do you know?” Travis asks.

“I know my pharmaceuticals,” Nick tells him.

“Yeah, I bet you do,” Elyza mumbles, thankfully unheard by the other three in the living room.

“And I know Pill Heads. Those people are not Pill Heads,” Nick continues. “And those pills are not recreational.” There’s a pause as everyone in the room looks at each other. Finally, when she’s had enough, Elyza breaks the silence.

“Well? Are you getting those kids or not?” she asks the group.

And just like that they’re gone. Elyza sits and waits for something to happen for about five minutes before, Alicia and Chris barge onto the boat, and into the living room, startling Harley, who squeals in surprise.

“What’s going on?” Alicia asks her. Elyza looks up at her with a sad grimace.

“That George guy is planning on killing his family,” Elyza tells her. “Madison, Travis, and Nick went to get Willa and Harry. We’re taking them with us.”

“Are we sure that’s a good idea? How do we know that they won’t come after us?” she asks the blonde.

“I have no idea,” Elyza tells her.

It’s about another five minutes before Madison, Travis, and Nick, who is carrying a boy in his arms are rushing down the dock towards the boat.

“What happened?” Daniel calls to them as he untethers the boat.

“They turned!” Travis calls as he launches himself onto the deck and up the steps. “We’re taking the boy with us! Go!”

“I want my Dad. I want my Mama.” Alicia and Elyza look up at the young voice, and they both silently wonder where the young girl is.

“Shhh,” Madison tries to calm him. “I know. I know. Nut this is what they wanted. They want us to take care of you.”

“What happened to Willa?” the young boy asks. Nick grabs his shoulder and kneels in front of him, just as his mom is doing.

“She got sick alright?” Nick tells him gently. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

They head inside and before they can even begin to settle, Strands voice calls out over all the other noises.

“Madison! What have you done now?” he asks her, approaching the group angrily.

“We’re taking him with us,” Madison tells him, sliding the backpack she was carrying off of her shoulder. “We have room.”

“Put him back where you found him,” He points at the boy.

“We have room!” Madison tells him again.

“We do not,” he says still pointing. “Children are the very definition of dead weight.”

“You’re not doing this again!” Madison approaches him. “You don’t decide who lives and who dies.”

“That’s exac-” he starts but she cuts him off.

“There’s no debate!” Madison yells at him. “We’re doing this! Now move the goddamn boat!”

Before anyone can continue, they hear a gunshot and turn to see where the noise is coming from. Harley startles at the noise and starts crying. Automatically, Elyza pulls her daughter and son close and turns her body so that she is between them and shooter.

“ _Stop!_ ” The voice calls. They all turn to see a redheaded teenager boarding the yacht, gun in the air. Travis advances on the boy who points the gun at his chest. “Get back! Get back! Harry? Harry, come here, I’m taking you home.”

“No!” Madison tries to stop him, only to have the gun then aimed at her.

“Look, there’s no home anymore,” Travis tries to reason with him.

“Shut up!” the boy yells at him, readjusting the gun.

You don’t know what’s back there!” he tries again/

“ _Shut up!_ ”

“Listen to me-”

“I know what’s there!” the teen says. “It’s our home…. This is still our home!”

“Your dad doesn’t want this anymore!” Travis says. “He told me! He told us to take care of you!”

The whole time they were talking they failed to notice a certain blonde who had snuck around to the boy’s right side. She had placed her kids in Ofelia’s care, and had told them to hide behind the couch. Now she stood not five feet away, gun pointed at a head full of red hair.

“My father told me what he wants! He taught me!” the boy continues to point his gun at Travis.

“He changed his mind!”

“I don’t believe you.”

At that moment, Madison finally notices that both Elyza and Daniel have their guns pointed towards the boy.

“Come with us! Please! Elyza, Daniel, don’t.” she tells them, but neither lower their guns.

“I can get at least one of you guys! Maybe more!” He swings his gun towards Elyza. “Is that what you want? Huh? Just let us go home! Just let us go!”

There’s silence as the teen wits for an answer. When he receives none he calls to his brother, gun still pointed at Elyza because he’s distinguishing her as the greatest threat of the group.

“Harry! Come here!”

Nick whispers something in the boy’s ear and then lets him go. The boy runs to his brother and hugs his waist. Seth still refuses to lower his gun as he backs off of the boat.

“You caused this,” he hisses at the group.

When they reach the deck the group can see the boys’ mom shuffling closer, groaning as she does so. As the woman gets closer to the pair, the older tells the younger to wave to the boat. As he does so, Elyza tells everyone to stay inside. The only ones who listen are Strand and her kids. Everyone else files out onto the deck to see what is happening. They arrive in time to see Seth sling the gun off of his shoulder.

“Can’t you do something?” Ofelia asks her father, who just walks past her, barely sparing her a glance.

“The kid has a rifle,” he tells her, walking back inside the boat.

“Oh, Chris, don’t look,” Alicia says before turning away herself as Seth raises the gun.

Before the boy can even finish taking aim, another gunshot goes off and they watch as the dead woman falls to the ground. Everyone is frozen, looking fearfully at the boy with a rifle who is also frozen, before turning to look at Elyza, who stands sideways with one arm raised, smoking gun in her grasp.

Her face is made of steel as she watches Seth turn back towards the boat. They expect him to retaliate, but instead he gives Elyza a nod. She gives him a short, quick tip of her chin before he turns around to mourn his mother with his brother.

“Elyza, what the hell?” Travis asks her, moving to take the gun from her hands. Instead, of receiving the gun he receives a face full of metal, when she pins him to the outer wall of the Abigail. “What the hell did you do that for? You just killed his mom!”

“I just did for him what I did for you; you ungrateful fucker. That kid has to go kill his dad _and_ his little sister now. I wasn’t gonna make him add his mother to that list as well. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself, and then where would they be? That woman I killed, was just another walker to me, I don’t feel any remorse for what I just did. If he had been the one to kill that walker it wouldn’t have been a walker. It would have been his _mom_! Do you understand?” He nods his head as best as he can. “Good. Now, I’m going to go take a nap.”

As she walks past her, Alicia extends her hand to give Elyza’s hand a soft squeeze to show her support, and to let the blonde know that she’s there if she needs her. When the blonde smiles sadly and nods, Alicia can’t help but think that they’re making progress. After the blonde takes a seat on the couch and pulls her crying daughter and upset son close, she looks back up at Alicia and pats the cushion next to her.

 _Progress indeed._ She thinks as she moves to sit where the blonde had indicated. _Progress indeed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!


	7. That's My Girl!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group deals with the boat and their need for supplies, while Elyza knows that she needs meds and stat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning:  
> Mentions of rape and abuse.  
> PLEASE COMMENT!!!!! They're my inspiration to write!

It had been nine days since the incident at Catrina Island and things on the boat have finally returned to normal. Elyza was able to move about the boat however she pleased. She no longer had to stay on the couch and go stir crazy from the lack of things for her to do. And best of all, and oh was this her favorite; she no longer needed help getting to the bathroom. The only problem that she is still having is the lack of antibiotics. She had run out two days previously, and she could already feel the effects of her infection.

While yes, she knew that she no longer had to depend on people for help, she also knew that she _did_ depend on her medication. Without it, she tried her best to fight the infection that was making its way through her right shoulder. Every thirty minutes, she would slip away to clean her wound and, without Strands knowledge, tear his clean Egyptian cotton sheets into more bandages. She had to try extra hard to hide the effects of her infection from the others until she could find out a way to fix it, because Alicia had been spending an increasing amount of time with her and her kids. Most of all she was worried that Strand would find out and try to get rid of her in order to save his own skin.

It was about two in the morning and Elyza still couldn’t sleep. She laid in bed, Harley on her chest Aden curled into her left side. She tries not to but she can’t help but think about what might happen to Harley and Aden if she dies and can’t be there to protect them.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a slight bang, and a noticeable deceleration of the yacht.

“Mama what was that?” Aden asks her tiredly, not opening his eyes.

“I don’t know baby,” she tells him worriedly, “but I’m gonna go find out.”

With that she gently extracts herself from Aden and rises to her feet, Harley still clutched to her chest. Before she exits the room though she decides that it would be best to leave her daughter there, so she walks back to the bed and gently sets her daughter down in her little makeshift crib. She bends to kiss her daughter’s forehead, then her son’s, and heads upstairs.

When she gets there she sees the older portion of the group gathered around the kitchen table.

“It’s alright,” Travis was saying, “I’ll go check the manual. There’s bound to be something that explains why we’ve stopped, even though we still have fuel I promise if it’s something that we can fix then I can fix it.”

“You do that mate,” Elyza tells him, smiling somewhat encouragingly, but mocking him all the same. “We’ll just wait here and have ourselves some coffee, yeah?”

They all ignore her comment as Travis descends the steps to the engine room. While he’s gone, Elyza makes a quiet assessment of the severity of their situation. If they can’t get the boat moving again then the chances of Alicia’s friend Jack getting to them increases immensely. She was not going to let that happen, they may have lost them for a while, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t be found again. And over her dead body will she let those assholes get to her and her family. She decides then that if Travis can’t fix the boat then she’s taking her kids and heading for land.

At that moment Travis reappears from the engine room with a large manual in his hands. He puts on his glasses and flips through the pages until he finds the right one.

“Okay, so, uh… the sea water is what’s cooling the engines, no water; the engines overheat. I’m guessing, something’s blocking the water intake.” Travis glances up from what he’s reading and looks at the people gathered around him.

“So pull whatever the hell is blocking it and let’s get the hell out of here,” Strand tells the other man.

“I’m gonna have to get under the boat to find out what ever the hell it is,” Travis responds.

“Sun comes up in a few hours,” Madison supplies.

“Thanks Sherlock,” Elyza mumbles, ignoring the glare that the older woman sends her way.

“I’m not exactly inclined to wait for someone with a fifty caliber machine gun to roll up on us,” Strand tells her.

“Me neither mate.” Elyza crosses to the living room and places herself on a couch. “We need to get going, and fast.”

“It’s pitch dark! We don’t know what’s down there!” Madison tries to reason.

“We can shine a light,” is the response that she receives from the man.

“Should I get you some flippers? You going for a swim?” Madison advances on him.

“The longer we wait,” Daniel cuts in, “the bigger the risk.”

“I’ll do it,” Travis says, still flipping through the manual.

“Atta boy!” Elyza calls from the couches. Once again she receives a cod glare from the Clark family matriarch.

“Travis,” she says softly, “it’s not smart, it’s not safe…. It’s not how we decide things.”

“I think your man just decided,” Strand calls to her. Madison turns back to Travis.

“Travis… wait until daybreak.”

“Maddie,” he says to her, “the boats gotta move.”

“Too right, too right,” they all hear Elyza say, “I personally suggest that we check the intake filter, see what’s really blocking this thing, just to be on the safe side.”

Daniel and Strand shake their heads.

“We don’t have time for that,” Daniel tells her. She shrugs and makes her way to the scotch.

“If you say so, but on your own head be it.” She pours herself three fingers of scotch, and swirls it around the glass, turning around to look at the rest of the gathered group. “So, what now?”

“I’ll go get you the diving gear,” Strand tells Travis, who nods and rolls his shoulders in reply and places the manual on the table.

“Travis, please reconsider. This isn’t safe, please,” Madison tries once again to persuade him, but it’s not Travis who responds.

“Madison stop!” Elyza tells her, slamming her glass on the dining table, and using one of the chairs for support, trying not to hunch over. “Right now you have a choice. If there is something down there that can kill him, then either way he’s fucking dead. So you can either just let him do this and in the process, save the rest of us, or you can force him to stay here and watch as all of us die. I’m talking about him, Alicia, Nick, everyone. Is that what you want?”

“No.”

“Then shut the fuck up and let him fix the goddam thing!” Elyza growls at the woman, as she plops herself down in the chair she had previously been leaning on.

They all look at the blonde in shock at her outburst. Usually she was so calm, they could all see that something was wrong with the girl, and they didn’t know what to do. Elyza could feel their eyes on her and she sighed in relief when Strand returned with the gear that Travis would need. When she got a look at it she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t take this the wrong way mate,” she tells Travis, her sudden change in demeanor taking the group by surprise, “but I do _not_ fancy the wedge-y that that thing is going to give you!” She laughs again. “You’re gonna be digging for hours! If you know what I mean!”

She receives a glare from the older man, and shrugs her shoulders in response, taking another swig of her scotch.

“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking?” Madison asks her scathingly as Travis starts to put on his scuba suit.

“Not where I’m from.” Elyza mockingly looks Madison in the eye and slowly raises her glass to her lips taking a nice long sip and smacking her lips afterward with a satisfied smile.

“Yeah, well you’re in America now, and our legal drinking age is twenty-one,” Madison tells her, moving to take her drink.

“Not so fast Mad-Dog!” Elyza says, moving the glass out of Madison’s reach. “Who’s going to bust me for underage drinking? Last time I checked the police are a little indisposed at the moment. Plus, I can handle my liquor, I’ve been drinking since I was ten.”

At that statement everyone pauses and looks at her at that revelation. She pointedly ignores them and takes another drink of her scotch. She stays where she is as the rest of the group follow Travis to the deck as he jumps in.

* * *

 

Alicia is woken by the sound of raised voices coming from above her. She hears Elyza yelling, but she can’t make out what she’s saying. Slowly she slides out of bed and eases her way towards the stairs. As she approaches the voices get louder but she still can’t make out what they’re saying. Slowly she ascends the steps and stops where she knows she won’t be seen. She opens her mouth wide to quiet her breathing so that she can hear what is being said. By the time that she’s finally able to tune into the conversation she’s only able to make out the end of Elyza’s statement.

“-ecked the police are a little indisposed at the moment. Plus, I can handle my liquor, I’ve been drinking since I was ten.”

When she hears that, Alicia has to do her best not to gasp at the stab of pain that she feels in her chest. She doesn’t know why but the thought of Elyza drinking when she’s ten physically hurts her. She’s afraid to find out what kind of pain she would’ve been trying to mask with alcohol when she was _ten_. Alicia remembers that the only pain she suffered when she was ten was when her middle school crush got a girlfriend who wasn’t her. When that happened her mother had gotten her some ice cream, and a week later she had forgotten the whole thing. The thought that Elyza had been so hurt when she was ten makes Alicia want to walk up those stairs and pull the older girl into a hug, and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

She waits when all she can here is silence, but she races up the stairs in alarm when she hears a splash.

When she reaches the dining area, she can see Elyza cradling a tumbler of scotch in her hands. She hears footsteps and sees her mom re-entering the living room.

“Mom?” she asks. When Madison looks at her she continues. “What’s going on? What happened? What was that noise?” She fires off in rapid succession.

“Whoooaaa!” Elyza exclaims with a reassuring smile. “Calm down there sheila! Everything is fine. There’s something blocking that water intake for the boat and Travis went to clear it. She’ll be apples.”

“What?” Alicia asks her completely thrown by the comment.

“It means that it’ll be alright. I promise. Now, do you want some scotch?”

The blonde throws her head back in laughter when Madison gives and indignant scoff. Alicia can’t help but get captivated by the blonde. The air is stolen from her lungs by the sound. Alicia blushes when she realizes that she’s staring at the now chuckling blonde.

“Aw, don’t worry Mama C, I’m only joking!” Elyza says as she walks to the alcohol cooler. “I won’t let her have scotch, I’m sure we have a wine cooler or two in here… aha!” Elyza straightens and in her hands is a bright red drink. She pops it open and takes a swig. “Mmmm! Tastes like high school! Don’t worry Mama C, it’s only like two percent alcohol.”

With that she walks back to Alicia and hands her the drink, receiving a smile in thanks. She smiles back before she walks over to Madison and whispers something in the older woman’s ear. Reluctantly the woman nods and turns away, heading back to the deck. With a large smile on her face Elyza approaches Alicia again, scooping up her scotch as she went.

“What did you tell her?” Alicia asks her with a smirk as she takes a swig of her raspberry lemonade wine cooler.

“That with what’s going on you need something to calm your nerves or you might do something rash.” Elyza shoots her a wink and Alicia gasps in mock offense, knowing that the blonde didn’t mean her words as an actual insult. Before Alicia can respond to the “insult” she’s interrupted by splashing and the sound of Travis’s panicked voice. The two glance at each other before running to the deck. When they get there Travis is laying on his back, his oxygen tank preventing him from laying down fully.

“What happened?” Madison asks him.

“There’s dead in the water. One of them is what’s blocking the intake. I can’t see anything down there in the dark. We’re going to have to wait until the sun comes up, or else, whoever goes down there could be dead in seconds.

“Okay, so we wait,” Elyza says, though she doesn’t look very happy about it. “And I told you that we should’ve checked the filter first. Maybe we should start listening to the blond Australian, yeah?”

With that she walks back into the yacht, leaving everyone else in her wake as she makes her way back to her room for more sleep, lord knows she’s going to need it.

* * *

 

When Elyza wakes the second time it’s completely silent. She looks around and sees that her kids are not at her side and she bolts out of her room. She races up the steps calling out their names. She sighs in relief when she sees the two sitting on the floor in the living room, eating some of the dry food that they brought. Aden is eating his cheerios and, when she finishes chewing, giving Harley her baby cereal, one piece at a time. She smiles at the sight and rushes over to kiss both of their heads.

“Mornin’ Mama!” Aden says, as he kisses her cheek and gives Harley another piece of cereal.

“Why didn’t you wake me when you woke up?” Elyza asks her son, sliding down to sit next to him.

“You need sleep,” he tells her. “You haven’t been feeling good, and when I don’t feel good I like to sleep. So you should sleep. Then, before you know it you’ll be better!” He smiles up at her sweetly and she can’t help but begin to pepper his face with kisses, causing the boy to giggle.

“You.” Kisses. “Are. So.” More kisses. “Sweet!” She continues to kiss him, and throws some tickles in there as well. The boy’s giggles are contagious and soon his mother and sister are giggling with him.

“Mama…. S-Sto-op it! Stop it Mama!” The bot breaks free of his mother’s grasp and crawls around Harley so that the little girl was separating the two.

Anymore playing is interrupted by Alicia’s yelling.

“Mom!” Alicia can be heard calling.

Elyza springs to her feet as fast as she’s able and tells her kids, “Stay here,” before she rushes outside in order to meet Alicia.

“Mom. Mom!” Alicia calls. Elyza watches as strand passes the girl, two fishing poles in his hands.

“Alicia,” Madison says from inside the boat.

“I know, you’re not running on my deck,” Strand tells her not even sparing her a glance as he continues up the steps. Alicia stops running and watches the man as he passes her by.

“Jesus. Seriously?” she asks him, shaking her head in annoyance.

“What’s wrong?” Madison asks as she runs out of the living room. “What is it?”

“What she said,” Elyza tells her. The brunette shoots her a smile before turning to her mother.

“Look,” Alicia tells her, pointing towards an island and handing her mother her binoculars. “Over there…. Do you see it?” Elyza takes the binoculars from Madison to look where Alicia is pointing. Once she sees all of the debris, she hands the binoculars back to Madison and heads back inside. Alicia frowns as she watches her go.

“Is that-” Madison starts to ask but Alicia interrupts her.

“Suitcases,” she confirms. “A lot of luggage.”

“Holy shit. Where’d that wash up from?” Madison asks. Nick and Chris, who had previously been ignoring the conversation, stand and turn towards the beach. Nick takes the binoculars from his mother and tries to take a look for himself.

“We need supplies,” Alicia suggests, turning back towards her mother,

“Alicia, no,” Madison tells her.

“I’ve been watching, there’s no on there,” Alicia tries to reason with her mother. “No infected. All of that stuff is just lying there.”

“There’s infected in the water!” Madison exclaims.

“Well we’re not going to swim!” Alicia says as if her mother is being ridiculous.

“It’s a yard sale,” they hear Nick say, “I’ll go.”

“I’m with you,” Chris chimes in.

“Wai-” Madison starts.

“If they’re going I’m going,” Alicia cuts her off.

“No. Listen to me! All of you!” They all turn towards Madison. “Look, if anything were to happen to you it’d be-” Alicia cuts her off once again.

“Anything did happen!” she tells her mother. “We’re all in it. We’ve seen and done-”

“I know,” Madison tells her.

“So stop putting us at the kids table,” Alicia tells her.

“I’ll watch her,” Chris tells Madison.

“You’re gonna get slapped,” Alicia says looking a t the boy.

“That’s my girl!” They all turn at the sound of the voice and see Elyza approaching the deck, empty bags and weapons in hand. They watch dumbstruck as she passes out the bags to the other teens and then turns to Alicia and hands her a Scottish Dirk in its sheath. “Alicia, this is for you, never know what we’re going to find out there. Nick?” She offers him another weapon but he declines.

“You keep it. I’m going to see if I kind find one of my on when we get to the beach.” He turns back around and raises the binoculars again. Alicia looks down at the weapon in her hand and feels a spark of familiarity. It fits perfectly in her hand, as though it was made for her. She doesn’t know why, but as she weighs the knife in her hands, she can’t help but smile. She loves this knife.

“Alright-y then!” She claps her hands and heads towards the stairs, the other starting to follow close behind.

“What about me?” Chris asks her. “Don’t I get a weapon?”

“Sorry mate, I don’t exactly trust you now do I?” she responds, throwing him a glance over her shoulder.

“Now wait just a sec-” Madison starts, once again glaring at the blonde.

“Mom, we need more clothes, we need more meds, we need more everything,” Nick tells her.

“Valid,” they all hear Strand chime in.

“So, we go while Travis fixes the engine, we get what we can, and we come straight back.” He moves to follow Elyza down the stairs, the blonde already getting situated on the launch. As he passes, Alicia and Chris once again make a move to follow. Before they can however, Travis approaches the rest of them and they all freeze in their movement, all except Elyza, who continues to move about the smaller boat.

“What’s going on?” Travis asks.

“Dad we’re going to shore,” Chris tells his dad.

“Like hell you are,” is the response that he receives.

“We’re not asking for permission!” Alicia exclaims.

“No, no we are not!” they hear Elyza call right as Travis says, “Excuse me?”

“Now, hold on,” Madison says. At that point Daniel feels the need to intervene.

“I’ll take them,” he tells Madison as he steps forward. “The girl is right… we’re wasting time. If anything goes wrong… we comeback quickly.”

“Don’t forget that Elyza Lex Ass-Kicking Extraordinaire will be there too!” they all hear the blonde call up to them, and it’s all Alicia can do to refrain from giggling. The adults ignore the blonde as they continue on with making their “decision”. As if they even had a choice.

“Fine,” Madison says in exasperated defeat.

“Wooo!” they all hear the blonde yell, and this time Alicia can’t stop her laughter. “You made the right choice Mama C!”

At that they all get their things read and head towards the launch. Alicia attaching her new knife and its sheath to her belt as she goes. Elyza gets out of the boat but leaves her stuff as she goes to say good-bye to her kids, both of whom are with Ofelia.

“Let me make a list,” they all hear Madison say as she walks back inside the yacht.

As Elyza approaches her kids she can tell that Harley is about to start crying. If there is anything that that girl really hates, it’s seeing her mother leave. She kisses both of her kids on the forehead and converses quietly with Ofelia.

“Did Nick find the spot?” Elyza asks her quietly, the other woman nods. “Good, make sure they know where it is, and that Aden knows to take his things with him when he hides. We don’t want to run the risk of them being caught because someone sees Harley’s baby food lying about.” Again Ofelia nods her response and the blonde continues. “If you see anyone you don’t know approaching the boat, and I mean anyone, even if they’re with us; don’t trust them and hide the kids. Do you hear me? Trust no one, who isn’t already one of us.”

“Okay,” Ofelia tells her, nodding her head.

“Keep them safe,” Elyza’s voice breaks when she says those words. “Please.”

“I will,” Ofelia tells her. “I promise.”

“Good…. Good.” She gives each of her kids a kiss on the head and then she steps into the small boat. “I love you, baby’s, I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye Mama,” Aden says tearfully, and Elyza leans over and kisses her kids heads again.

“It’s on the list!” Ofelia calls tuning into the others’ conversation, then turning to Alicia, trying to give Elyza as much privacy as possible considering both of the kids are clinging to her. “And hey, if you see anything that’s not completely awful can y-”

“I gotcha,” Nick tells her, hopping into the boat.

“Alicia,” she tells the girl, “I can’t do geriatric shoes.”

“What’s wrong with geriatric shoes?” Nick asks her. Ofelia goes to say something else but Alicia beats her to it.

“Relax, I got you.” Alicia smiles up at the other woman, and looks away to see Elyza hugging Aden to her body, and whispering comforting words in his ear. She watches as the boy nods and backs away, returning to Ofelia’s side.

“Get warm clothes too, okay? Jackets, sweaters, it’s cold out there on the water,” Madison tells the teens who are moving about the small boat, trying to get situated.

“Alicia?” the girl turns when she hears the small voice, and she sees Aden standing on the edge of the deck, as close to the boat as he can get. Elyza is back on the deck, Holding Harley and trying her best to calm the crying infant, who now clings to her like a koala.

“Yeah buddy?” she asks him, approaching the side of the launch that he’s standing at.

“I just wanted to say ‘bye’,” he tells her, looking down at his hands bashfully.

“Oh, okay, well, goodbye,” she tells him softly. The boy looks up at her with sad eyes.

“Bye,” he says. He pauses and looks back down at his feet again. “Can I have a hug?”

“O-Of course!” Alicia tells him, surprised by his question. He opens his arms and waits for her to go to him. As soon as she wraps him in her arms, she can feel her heart melt at how sweet and tiny he feels in her arms.

“Be careful, ‘kay?” he tells her, not pulling away.

“I will,” Alicia assures him. He finally pulls away, and when he does he looks her right in the eye.

“And please take care of Mama,” he tells her. “I don’t want to say goodbye for good.”

“I will, I promise,” Alicia tells him as Elyza and Daniel get into the boat and they start to pull away from the yacht. Ofelia stays on the deck and watches them go, standing next to a waving Aden and trying to calm a sobbing Harley.

* * *

 

They fly towards the beach, and as they get closer Alicia finds that her eyes are drifting away from the shoreline and to Elyza, who’s eyes still haven’t left the Abigail.

“They’ll be okay,” Alicia tells her. Elyza finally breaks her eye contact with the boat to look at her.

“I know they will, it’s just hard to leave them knowing that I might be the one who won’t be okay. It sucks, but I know that it’s necessary.” Elyza looks back at the yacht, and heaves as sigh. “I don’t want to abandon them the way that my parents did me and Aden’s parents did him. They may not have chosen to leave, but they still left, and I don’t want either of them to feel that pain. Yet, in this world, the chances of them having to do that are increased immensely and that fucking sucks ass.”

“I understand what it’s like to lose a parent. My dad, he uh, he died when I was eleven. I know how much that hurts.”

“But you still had your mom, I had no one. I had just turned ten and I was all alone. I had to go live with a new, ‘nice’ family, and they couldn’t have been worse. I was with them for four years when I decided that I was going to run away. I was almost fifteen, I would’ve been able to find work. But then Aden came along. His real mom had died during childbirth due to complications. Aden was a prem-y, so he had to stay in the hospital for an extra month. While he was in there his dad committed suicide. He couldn’t take it. His wife was dead, and his son was bound to have health issues for the rest of his life so he just quit. He gave up. I know it sounds bad, but I’m happy that he did. Aden saved my life, if he hadn’t come along I probably would have gone down the same road as his dad.” The whole time that she’s talking Elyza doesn’t once look at the other girl. She continues to stare at the boat unblinkingly. There’s a slight pause before Elyza gives her head a firm shake and looks at Alicia. “Sorry, you didn’t need to hear all of that shit.”

“It’s okay. Really, it’s good to talk about this stuff. All I was saying was that I know a little bit about what you’re going through right now. I lost someone special to me too.”

 _And just like that she was somewhere else. Staring at a pile of burnt wood and ash. The blonde,_ Clarke _, she remembers, is standing next to her._

_“I lost someone special to me too,” she tells Clarke, squeezing her grip on the handle of her sword at the stab of pain in her heart. She pauses to draw the strength that she needs in order to continue. Her name was Costia…. She was captured by the Ice Nation, who’s queen believed she knew my secrets. Because she was mine… they tortured her… killed her… cut off her head.” She blinks rapidly, trying to suppress her tears._

_“I’m sorry,” Clarke tells her._

_“I thought I’d never get over the pain, but I did,” she tells the blonde, still not looking at her._

_“How?” Clarke asks her. When she recognizes the pain in Clarke’s voice, she tries not to flinch._

_“By recognizing it for what it is….” She finally looks over at the girl. “Weakness.”_

_“What is?... Love?” She nods, looking away from the blonde. “So you just stopped caring? About everyone?” Once again she gives the blonde a small, slow nod. “I could never do that.”_

_“Then you put the people you care about in danger,” she says quietly. “And the pain will never do away.” She looks at the blonde once again. “The dead are gone, Clarke. The living are hungry.”_

_She turns and walks away, leaving the blonde behind. As she walks, she forces herself to take deep breaths, struggling to keep it together. No matter how many times she says, or how much she’s forced herself to believe it, it still pains her too say that love is weakness. Because deep down she knows that it’s not true._

“Whoa,” Elyza’s voice cuts into her thoughts. “You okay there? You kinda zoned out for a second.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. I was just thinking, that in times like these, we look at the world and think that survival is the only thing that we should worry about. That we should only care about ourselves and self-preservation. That love is weakness. And I’m happy that you’re here, because you and Aden and Harley, you are proving to everyone that love is strength. They look at you and see someone who is willing to do anything for her kids out of love, and I think that that is truly amazing. I think that you’re truly amazing, Elyza.” Alicia doesn’t know where all of those words came from, just that they spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. Yet, she can’t find it in herself to regret them, because the minute she hears them out loud, she knows that it’s true.

“Damn girl! You’re making me blush!” Elyza says, trying to rid their conversation of all the seriousness. Alicia gives her small smile and silence descends upon them again. After a minute Elyza quietly says, “Thank you.” And they leave it at they because they finally reach the beach.

Everyone hops out of the boat when they reach the rocky shore, and they carry it further up the beach until it’s completely unreachable by the water. Everyone grabs their bags and start heading towards the wreckage. Alicia notices blades strapped to Elyza’s forearms, and blades with weird handles strapped to her thighs. She watches as the girls straps her sword holsters to her back and then slide her mismatched swords into place.

She tries to shrug off the familiarity she feels at seeing the large “X” that is formed across her back by her swords.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” Elyza says merrily, leading the group up the hill towards the wreckage.

As they approach they see two burned bodies, and they gag at the smell.

“Oh my god,” Nick says as he moves closer to get a better look.

“‘Kay, let’s be quick,” Daniel tells the group. His hand planted firmly on the handle of his gun. “Everyone where Elyza or I can see you…. Fill your bags, come back.

They all split up, and start searching for supplies. Elyza starts searching for medicine first. She can live with the same clothes for the next few months, but in order for that to happen she needs to actually _live_. They’ve been scavenging for about fifteen minutes when Nick approaches her.

“Hey, if you’re looking for meds, make sure you’re looking for the ‘cilins and ‘odons. They work best with infections.”

“I know Nick. I was Pre-Med when all of this shit went down. But, I won’t say ‘no’ to a little help finding some of those things,” Elyza tells him with a smile. He nods and walks off to go talk to Daniel. The heat of the day is finally getting to her so she pulls her hair up into a ponytail and continues with her work. Elyza is left alone for a few more minutes when Alicia approaches from behind her.

“Elyza, what’s that behind your ear?” Alicia asks in concern when she sees the two rows of five perfect circular scars behind her ear and the one extra circle starting a third row, completely for the first time ever. The sight of them make her feel a little sick.

Elyza startles at the question and looks at the girl quickly before loosening her ponytail so that her hair slackens and falls in a curtain over her ears, hiding the scars from view. Elyza turns back to the suitcase she was rummaging through and looks at the piece of clothing in her hands. She remains quiet as a battle wages in her mind and heart over whether or not she should tell Alicia what those scars are. Finally, her heart wins out because, for some reason, her heart wants her to tell Alicia everything, and hold nothing about her life back. Just like when they were in the boat.

“They’re birthday presents from my foster dad,” she tells her quietly, not looking up. “Eight for the number of birthdays I had when I was with him, and three for the number of birthdays Aden had when we were there.”

“Why do you have Aden’s?” Alicia asks her, already knowing the answer.

“Because I wouldn’t let that asshole touch him,” Elyza responds, her voice breaking towards the end of her statement.

“And those scars. They were caused by c-” Alicia starts, only to get interrupted by Elyza.

“Cigarettes. Yes.”

“Jesus. I’m so sorry Elyza. No one should have to go through that.”

“Don’t worry love!” Elyza says with false cheerfulness. “I’ve had worse! Plus, according to Kelly Clarkson, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’, and hotter in my case, obviously. I mean, look at me! I’m a babe!”

“So I’ve been told,” Alicia says, willingly accepting the change of subject. “Many times in fact. According to Nick you’re “unbelievably hot”, and “Jesus Christ! It’s like she was trying to melt my face off with her hotness!”. Which, by the way, is not something that I want to hear my brother talk about.”

“Yeah, well. While I appreciate the comments, it’s too bad he’s looking in the wrong place,” Elyza says with a delighted chuckle. The lingering sadness from their previous conversation finally disappearing. Alicia can feel her heart start to race at the other girl’s laugh and her comment.

“What does that mean?” she wants to get a clarification. She kneels down next to the blonde and starts rummaging through the same suitcase.

“He’s not exactly my type, if you know what I mean.” Elyza’s smile gets wider when she sees the realization spread across the younger girls face.

“Oh! So you’re a-”

“A lesbian, yes,” Elyza tells her with a laugh causing the girl to blush.

“B-But, you- you have Harley?” Alicia says, unsure if what she had just said was a question or a comment. She wishes she can take back her words when she sees Elyza’s smile completely drop off her face.

“Yeah, she was also an early birthday present from my foster dad,” Elyza says quietly.

“Aw, shit. Elyza I didn’t mean to-” Alicia tries to fix the damage but stops when Elyza smiles up at her.

“It’s alright Alicia. I promise. That little ankle biter and Aden are the best things that that man has ever done for me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’d go through it all, all over again just for those two. They’re my life.”

Hearing Elyza says that sends Alicia’s heart racing once again. Before she knows it she’s leaning towards the blonde. Her eyes flicking back and forth between Elyza’s lips and her eyes. Elyza’s eyes widen at Alicia’s movements before she too starts to lean in… only to be interrupted by Nick.

“You guys haven’t seen Chris and Daniel have you? Daniel went looking for Chris.” He asks as he approaches them. Alicia launches herself away from the blonde, trying to shake whatever the hell had come over her. She hears Elyza groan before answering.

“No idea,” Elyza says.

“They’re taking too long,” Alicia comments, getting to her feet.

“You’re right,” Elyza says, “why don’t we split up and look yeah? I’ll go that way,” she unknowingly points in the direction that Chris went, “and you two go that way.” She points in a direction that is perpendicular to her own.

“Sounds, good,” Nick says, starting to walk off. He pauses and turns back towards Alicia. “You comin’?” he asks her.

She shakes her head, “No. that’s okay, I’ll just go with Elyza.” She says these words out loud but right after she says them she can feel her mind screaming, ‘ _What the FUCK?’_

Elyza cocks and eyebrow at the girl, but nods anyway. She doesn’t say anything about it and for that Alicia is thankful. Nick nods his agreement and walks off.

“Alright Princess, let’s go.”

* * *

 

They walk in silence for about five minutes when they finally stumble upon Chris.

“Chris?” Alicia calls. Elyza stays silent, trying to stay alert. She frequently scans her surroundings as they approach one of the portions of the downed plane. “Chris!”

They watch as he slowly exits the plane. Elyza immediately takes notice of the blood that’s splattered his body.

“There he is!” Elyza exclaims, mocking the boy as they approach him.

“Where the hell were you?” Alicia asks him.

“I was in there, looking for some supplies,” he tells her. Elyza doesn’t know why, but the way he says it puts her on edge.

“Are- are you hurt?” Alicia asks him, finally taking notice of the blood. When Chris doesn’t answer right away, she grows worried.

“No,” he says, still in his weird little daze. Finally, recognition sparks in his eyes as he realizes what Alicia is concerned about. “Yeah! No, no! I’m okay, I’m okay. It wasn’t- it wasn’t me.”

“You killed one?” Alicia asks him. It hits Elyza then that Alicia still has yet to kill a walker, and for some reason, she’s envious of the girl. She watches as Chris smiles and nods with something akin to pride, putting her even more on edge as she sizes the young boy up.

Before they can say anything more, they’re interrupted by gunshots.

“Daniel,” Elyza says, and she takes off running back to shore, the other two following close behind. “Get your weapons out!” she yells at them. “Be ready for anything! And don’t forget to aim for the head!”

They keep running, and they finally spot Daniel. Elyza has to do a second take when she sees that there is someone else with him. Under different circumstances she would ask the girl who she was, but given their situation, she decides to wait until later.

“Daniel!” Alicia calls as they approach. “Where’s Nick?”

“Let’s get back to the boat!” he says in response, but Alicia runs to his side.

“Where’s Nick?” she asks him again.

As the walkers get closer, Elyza pulls out her forearm machete attachments and clicks them into place, preparing for a fight. She also pulls out her swords, giving them an experimental spin before getting into a fighting stance. When the mass of walkers gets bigger and closer she’ll use the blades on her forearms, but until then, she is completely happy with her swords.

As the walkers get closer, Daniel shoots them, and the ones that he doesn’t shoot, Elyza cuts them down with her swords. Daniel finally runs out of bullets and is forced to use the gun as a bludgeoning object, Elyza moves to help him when the walker takes him down, but the mystery girl does it for her. Knowing that he’s safe, Elyza turns back towards the oncoming horde. She cuts as many down as she can, but soon they’re getting backed into a corner.

She slides her swords back onto her back and gets ready for the closer combat. She quickly moves through the dead, taking them down two to three or four at a time. She’s so intently focused on her task she almost doesn’t notice when a walker starts to overpower Alicia. In a panic, Elyza races to help her, but before she can Nick gets there first. She pauses when she sees the amount of blood that he’s covered in, but before she can say something, he’s clearing a path for them so that they can reach the boat.

He slowly starts to follow them, and Alicia realizes that he’s not close behind and runs back. Elyza follows, unwilling to let the brunette approach the horde alone.

“Nick!” she calls. And when her brother ignores her, she calls again. “Nick!”

With that, her, Nick, and Elyza are racing towards the others and carrying the boat towards water. Their silence is interrupted by the new girl.

“We need to make a stop,” is all that she says. When they get to the water, they all hop into the boat and the girl quietly gives directions to Nick.

They’re all silent as they approach another boat that appears to be drifting, but as they get closer they realize that it’s tied to a rock.

They get close, and Elyza sees a person inside, half of his face is covered in burns. She watches silently as they attach the two boats and as Alicia, the mystery girl, and Chris climb into the boat. They entire ride back is silent. As soon as they get to the yacht, Elyza is hoping out of the boat and rushing inside to find her kids. She races downstairs, when she reaches her room it hits her that they’re not going to be there. Ofelia would have hidden them by now. Slowly, she takes a deep breath and makes her way back up the stairs.

When she gets there she can hear Alicia yelling and chooses to stay inside, and just listen.

“-him! He’s dying!”

“Are you people really debating this?” the mystery girl asks. There’s silence, and Elyza considers making herself known, when Travis finally speaks.

“We could tow them,” he says. “We could tow them. To San Diego. In their raft.”

“Travis,” Strand says, “What part of what I’m saying-”

“They don’t come on the boat!” Travis yells. “Okay? We’re safe! They get a chance!”

“Victor,” she hears Madison say. And she watches as Strand walks past, the anger clear on his face.

“We can give you food,” she hears Travis say, as she moves to put her weapons away. “Water…. Okay.”

Elyza watches as Alicia walks to the kitchen and comes back out with a jug of water. She watches silently from the couch, waiting until she can go get her kids.

Five minutes later, Ofelia comes back in from outside and approaches her.

“They’re a good fifty yards back. Do you want me to go get Aden and Harley?” she asks. Elyza nods.

“Yes please, but make sure Aden knows that he needs to be quiet, and that Harley has her binky. I don’t want them to be noticed.” Ofelia nods and heads down the stairs.

While she’s waiting for Ofelia to return with her kids, Alicia comes in and sits next to her.

“This isn’t right,” she says. Elyza just shrugs at her comment.

“Like I say, who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things,” she tells the girl next to her.

“I know, but I still hate it.”

“I know.” They sit in silence until Alicia remembers what nick had told her on the deck.

“Oh, and Nick says he has the stuff that you were looking for. Whatever that means.”

“Okay,” Elyza says. “Cool.”

Alicia wants to say more, but she notices that Elyza’s attention is stolen away by the two little people who are accompanying Ofelia up the stairs. When he sees his mom, Aden runs towards her, and when Harley sees her, she starts clapping excitedly, gurgling happy as they get closer.

“MAMA!” Aden whisper yells.

“Hey baby!” she exclaims, pulling him into a hug.

“Mama! Are you okay?” he continues to whisper.

“Yeah baby, I’m fine.” As she says this Ofelia hands Harley to her mother and the little girl wraps herself around Elyza’s neck tightly, looking as if she planned to stay there for the next fifty years, and never loosen her hold. “Hey, baby girl, Mama’s okay. I’m alright.” She gives a silent thank you to Ofelia, who nods and heads outside.

“I’m glad you’re okay Mama,” Aden whispers. Then he crawls into Alicia’s lap. “You too Alicia.”

“Thanks bud,” she tells him, ruffling his hair and making him giggle.

“Stop it!” he whispers.

“Aden, why are you whispering?” Elyza asks him. “You can talk normally, you know, just no yelling.”

“Oh,” he says. After that there’s a long pause. “Hey Mama?”

“Yeah baby?” Elyza asks him, leaning back on the couch.

“I farted,” he tells her with a giggle. He claps in delight when Alicia starts gagging and acting like she’s suffocating. Harley sees this and starts clapping in delight as well.

“That’s my boy,” Elyza says, laughing at Alicia as well. “That’s how you get _all_ the girls.”

* * *

 

This is what Harley looks like: [here](http://www.heidihope.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/baby_photographer_55.jpg)

This is what young Aden looks like: [here](http://www.best-family-photography-tips.com/sweetness-of-a-4-year-old.html)

This is Alicia's knife: [here](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopyourtv.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F03%2FSzco-Supplies-DM-1076-Damascus-Sgian-Dubh-Knife-2x07.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopyourtv.com%2F2016%2F03%2Fthe-100-season-2-episode-7-lexas-knife%2F&docid=95SmdmRYh-azXM&tbnid=qrTqBQjOhGvNFM%3A&w=585&h=347&hl=en&safe=active&bih=722&biw=757&ved=0ahUKEwjx9Lzt1-zMAhUo0YMKHbTdB4YQMwgdKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Comment!!!!!!!


	8. I Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boat has a few visitors. Elyza and Alicia get closer. Alicia has some flash backs. Elyza has a nightmare and relives her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's been so long. It's been a combination of things such as family and a lack of inspiration and writers block. Plus this was a long chapter, it was about twenty pages. I'll try to be better about updates with the upcoming chapters. I have a LOT in story for this story, so stay tuned! Please review! They inspire me to actually write!!!!!

Harley had been moved to the floor, tucked away on a stack of folded blankets and sheets. When Elyza wakes up, she’ll be thankful she made the decision to move her daughter, because right now, Elyza tosses and turns in her bed. Flashes from her past running through her dreams, turning them into nightmares.

She sees her parents, dying in the same car crash that put her in a coma for two months. She sees her foster father, standing over her with the same red hot brand that he used for his cattle. She sees herself, shielding Aden from the same fate. She sees every last rape and beating, unable to run and leave Aden behind. Everything just plays in her mind on a loop of endless pain and torture, and no matter what she tries, this time she can’t escape.

Her dreams shift to the end of the world. She was on her way home from work when the rioting reached its most dangerous point. There were bodies littering the streets, whether they were shot or trampled was unclear. There were fires and looters everywhere. She saw a little girl ripping into the flesh of her father, the very sight sent her running home. She had left her kids with her neighbors, as she always did when she had to work nights, and the only thing playing through her head was that the older woman had looked ill when she came over to stay with the kids after dinner.

_“Shit, shit, shit!” Elyza was yelling at herself as she flung herself up the stairs of her apartment building. She kept replaying vision of the little girl eating her father. At the sight the fear of it being the “flu” that caused this, sent her racing for her kids. She reaches her floor, and sprints to the end of the hall. She’s about to knock on Ms. Donahue’s door when she hears a thump and a growl, followed by Harley’s cry and Aden’s scream of fear._

_“Oh, fuck no,” she says. She tries to open the door and finds it locked. She allows herself one moment of sheer panic when she can’t find her keys before she busts down the door. She runs in and she sees Aden on the ground, in a pool of his own blood. Harley lays next to him, her chest one big lump of torn flesh._

No.

_Ms. Donahue crouched over them, blood on her face._

No. No. This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. She’s supposed to save her kids.

_Aden looks at her when she enters, tears are making tracks across his bloodied face as he looks her in the eyes and says, “Mama…. Mama, it hurts…. Mama I-I t-t-tried.”_

_She watches as the light leaves his eyes._

“NO!” Elyza shoots up in her bed, only to find herself wrapped in someone’s arms. She struggles, trying to get away, but unable to find the strength to break free. She settles when she recognizes the voice that is trying to reach her through the fog.

“Elyza! Hey, hey… you’re okay. You’re okay,” Alicia whispers in her ear as she rocks Elyza back and forth, running a hand over her back in soothing circles, methodically brushing the blonde’s hair back as well. “Shhh, shhh. It’s alright, it’s alright.”

And just like that the blonde is in tears. She lets it all go and before she knows it, she’s sobbing into the brunette’s shoulder, thankful that her kids could sleep through a tornado if they wanted to. Alicia cradles the back of Elyza’s head, and presses her face further into her clavicle. She continues all three of her movements, rocking the other girl, stroking her back, and playing with her hair.

Alicia doesn’t know how long they sit like that, but she does know that she’s not going anywhere. She’s gonna stay right where she is, and she’s gonna help Elyza, not matter what. After a while, Elyza finally calms down enough for Alicia to believe that she may have fallen back asleep.

“I’m sorry.” Alicia startles as the sound of the other girl’s voice.

“You have nothing to be sorry about Elyza,” she tells her. “Do you hear me? Nothing.”

“No, I do. I do. I’m sorry to bother you like this. I had no right.”

“Hey, you listen to me. You have _nothing_ to be sorry about Elyza. It’s okay, I understand, I get nightmares sometimes as well. So you have nothing to be sorry about.” Alicia strokes the hair on her head, hoping that it’s helping to sooth the blonde. She almost sighs in relief when she feels Elyza nod into her shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Elyza nods again.

“Okay, why don’t you tell me what your dream was about, huh?”

“Okay,” Elyza takes a shuttering breath, “My parents died in a car accident. Some asshole had been drinking and driving. My foster parents were really nice at first, then foster mom left foster dad, and he went off the deep end. He thought that the only way to keep me from leaving was to mark me as his. He-he had th-this cattle brand,” she pulls away from Alicia and lifts up her shirt, right there on here hip was an infinity symbol, and as Elyza brought her shirt down Alicia caught sight of a second peeking out from just above her shorts on her back. “His last name was Brooks. He used that symbol on all of his cattle, and sheep, and his products. It was part of his logo.”

“Why do you have two?” Alicia asks her gently as Elyza tucks herself back into the other girl’s shoulder. The blonde grows rigid at the question, but after a few deep breathes she relaxes.

“He tried to give Aden one when he got there, I took the brand for him. He was just a baby! He was so tiny and innocent. I told myself that I needed to protect him long enough for him to get adopted,” her breath shudders before she continues. “But he had health problems. He had to have surgery when he was two because he had a hole in his heart, after that, apparently A child who struggles isn’t exactly what a family wants. So he stayed, he never knew how bad it was because I never let that scumbag touch him. Of course at time that only made things worse for me.”

Once again she pulls away so that she can show Alicia something. She pulls off her shirt so that she’s only left in her bra, and Alicia has to stop herself from gasping as the sight before her. From her chest down her body is riddled with scars, she watches as the blonde shifts awkwardly until her back was facing the brunette. The sight that met her eyes this time made her want to cry. Patches of unmarred skin were few and far between, and the sight just made Alicia want to gather the blonde to her again. Before she could however, Elyza started talking to her.

“My parents were American, we had only just moved to Australia a couple of months before everything happened. So there will stated that if anything happened to them then they wanted the state to wait until I was eighteen to give me my parents assets. As soon I was eighteen, I grabbed Aden and we ran. I bought us a nice apartment, when I found out I was pregnant I put the rest of the money in college funds for Aden and Harley. Though, now that just seems like a waste…. I was so excited that we were finally going to have a normal and happy life. We were doing so good, and then all of this shit went down.

“The night it all went to shit, I was at work, everyone there was oblivious to what was happening outside of our little bubble.” Her breath shudders once again. “I was on my way home. It was about four in the morning. I had left them with my neighbor Ms. Donahue, I thought everything was fine until I say what was happening in the streets. I got scared, I ran home. When I got there she had turned, and in this dream-” her voice breaks off in a sob and Alicia pulls her to her once again, “in this dr-dream, I was too late. Th-they w-w-were dead!”

“It’s okay,” Alicia mumbles assurances in her ear. “It’s okay. Harley and Aden are okay, you’re okay. Everyone is okay. Nothing is going to happen to Harley or Aden, not if I can help it, and especially not if you can help it. If anyone is going to survive this shitty world, then it’s you and your kids.”

Elyza nods and pulls back. She looks Alicia in the eye and refuses to waver. Alicia stares right back and brings her hand to Elyza’s cheek. She pulls Elyza closer until their foreheads are touching and they stay like that, just breathing each other in.”

“Thank you,” Elyza barely whispers, her eyes darting down to Alicia’s lips, and then back up to her eyes again. As if ashamed of the thoughts going through her mind she squeezes her eyes shut and moves to pull away, “Thank you for being here for me.”

Alicia moves her hand to the blonde’s neck and pulls her forward. She whispers, “Always,” before she surges forward and molds her lips to Elyza’s. Elyza freezes for a second before she to surges forward, and pushes herself further into the kiss. She brings her hands up to her neck, and places her thumbs on Alicia’s cheeks, stroking gently with the ebb and flow of their kiss. They both lose track of time in their gentle kiss, but soon the need for air overwhelms them both and they pull back, noses and foreheads still touching.

“Wow,” Alicia whispers with a smile as she runs her hands up and down the blonde’s arms.

“I know,” Elyza continues to stroke Alicia’s cheeks with her thumbs.

Anything that either was about to say next is interrupted by shouting coming from above them.

“ _Dad_!” they hear Chris shouting. There’s some warbling of voices, and Nick yelling again, “ _Dad! DAD!_ ”

“ _Madison!_ ” they hear Ofelia yelling. “ _Madison!_ _Madison!_ ”

As they hear more warbling and the sound of unfamiliar voices, Elyza throws herself out of bed and rushes to wake her Aden up quietly.

“Mama?” he asks. “Mama, what’s going on?”

“Hush baby,” she whispers, “grab your back pack, and sister’s. You and Harley are going to go hide, okay? Go to your hiding place, and stay there until Nick or Ofelia come and get you. Do you hear me?”

“Yeah Mama,” he whispers back, putting on his backpack and hanging Harley’s duffle bag over one arm. Gently, Elyza picks Harley up, doing her best not to wake the sleeping girl, and hands her to Aden. The boy grunts slightly under the added weight, but other than that he is quiet. Elyza gives him Harley’s binky, so that when she wakes up, he can make sure that she stays quiet.

“Okay,” Alicia says, “I’m going to make sure that the coast is clear.”

She walks to the door and opens it, what she sees surprises her. Her mom is walking down the hall, in the opposite direction from which Alicia is standing.

“Mom?” she asks. “What’s going on?”

“The baby’s in distress,” Madison says, turning to look at her daughter.

“Who’s that?”

“Just stay in your room okay?” Madison calls over her shoulder as she continues down the hall towards the bathroom.

As soon as Maddie and the pregnant woman disappear, Alicia turns back and gives Elyza the all clear. As soon as she sees that Elyza is pushing Aden out the door and turning back into her room, not willing to watch him go.

“So who was it?” Elyza asks Alicia as the two start to creep silently up the stairs. Elyza tying her hair back into a braid as they go.

“Some pregnant woman,” Alicia responds. The higher they go the clearer the voices get.

“Our hull got dinged as we were leaving the marina in Long Beach,” they her a guy say. They reach the living room and see two men standing on the deck, being held at gun point. “W-w-we panicked. We thought we patched it up good, but we rushed it.” As they get loser, that voice sparks a memory in Alicia, she can’t quite place it, so the two continue getting closer. “And we started taking on water a-and the engine flooded.” And right then it Clicks.

“Jack?” Alicia asks. Everyone turns to look at her, the whole room falls silent.

“What did you do?” Daniel asks her.

“Madison,” Travis manages to say before one of the men knocks him in the face. The other one- Jack- knocks the gun out of Daniels hand and Tackles the older man.

It all happens so quickly no one has time to react. Soon, they’re all escorted to the living room and being tied one by one at gun point.

“Jack,” Alicia says, trying to reason with the boy. He looks up at her from where he’s tying Chris and doesn’t say a word. “Don’t. Please. Why are you doing this?”

“You can circumnavigate the world from this ship,” the other guy with the gun said. “She’s a prize.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Travis tells him from where he’s sitting tied up in front of the couch.

“No,” the guy says, “I think your son made the mistake.” He looks at Chris. “Should I shoot him? Piece of advice? If you have to ask the question… someone should already be dead.”

“Please, Jack-” Alicia tries, but it’s the other man who cuts her off again.

“So where’s this blonde Australian chick Jack’s said you talked so much about?” he asks Alicia as he makes his way around the couches towards her. “Is she downstairs? Maybe I’ll go give her a surprise.”

“She’s dead.” Everyone turns to look at Elyza when she speaks, even Alicia is completely thrown by the lack of her signature accent. “They got swarmed on a beach, she was bitten, she died.”

“Well aren’t you a pretty one,” he says, walking to her and grabbing a piece of her hair. He turns to look at Jack, “Daniel’s next, your girl can help you.”

“I’m not doing shit,” Alicia tells him. He pulls away from Elyza and puts a put on the coffee table, leaning closer towards Alicia.

“We can bind them, we can shoot them,” he tells her, “no skin off my nose.”

Alicia glares at the man as she reluctantly makes her way forward and drops to her knees next to Daniel. Jack kneels next to the two and hands Alicia the rope to start binding with. She throws him a glare too.

“Kip, check the rest of the boat,” the gut tells Jack, “look for the captain and Nick.”

“Why do they know our names?” Daniel asks Alicia.

“I don’t know Daniel,” she says in his ear. “I didn’t… I didn’t tell him about that.”

Elyza catches her glaring at Jack again, and she can’t help the small smile that makes its way to her lips. They all startle slightly when they hear the sound of paddles hitting the water. Elyza watches as Jack grabs Alicia and drags her outside, the other guy close behind. The trio can see a small life boat travelling further and further away.

“Jack,” the guy says. “Get him.”

“Jack, don’t,” Alicia pleads. “Jack, please.”

The older guy sighs, and pulls out a hand gun. He aims at the boat and fires twice.

“Did you get him?” Jack asks.

“If I didn’t the hypothermia will.” With that the older man walks back into the living room. The first thing that he notice’s is that he’s missing one hostage. He turns to head back outside only to receive a most likely expensive sculpture to the temple, and a foot kicking his gun out of his hands.

He makes a dive he grabs his other gun and moves to point it at her, but she kicks his wrist as hard as she can, sending the gun flying out the deck doors, landing who knows where. She delivers another kick to the guy’s chest, and moves to kick him again when she feels the muzzle of a gun against the back of her head.

Elyza freezes and raises her still tied hands into the air.

“Don’t move,” Jack says to her. The other man is still on his back, trying to catch his breath now that the situation is under control.

She nods.

“I said _don’t_ move!” he yells at her. “I’ll shoot!”

“Yeah, okay, asshole,” she says as she turns to face the guy. As she does he slams the muzzle of the gun against her forehead.

“Don’t doubt me. I will blow your head off,” he growls at her.

“Jack-” Alicia tries.

“SHUT UP!” he roars.

“You’re not going to shoot me. You want to know how I know?” Elyza asks him with a large smile on her face. Her Australian accent still nowhere to be found.

“Yeah? How?” Jack presses the muzzle even harder against her forehead, when he sees her cross her eyes he startles slightly.

“Your safety is on,” she tells him.

He takes his eyes off of the girl to look at his gun, and she takes the opportunity to knock his gun aside and grab his shirt, pulling him into a head-butt. He drops his gun and Elyza sweeps his legs out from under him. When he hits the ground she turns to the other man who was on his knees, trying to advance on her. She moves forward and delivers a tornado kick to his jaw, sending him sprawling once again. She turns to advance towards Jack once again, but a yell stops her in her tracks.

“ _Don’t_ move, or she dies!” Elyza looks over to see Madison being held at gun point by the pregnant lady.

“Aww, come on Mama C!” Madison startles at her American accent. “She’s pregnant!”

“What’s wrong with your v-” Madison starts to ask.

“I mean,” Elyza cuts her off, “we were so close! And we’re beaten by a _pregnant_ lady?”

“Hey blondie! Shut up!” the woman says.

“Which blondie?” Elyza asks. “This blondie?” She points to herself then to Maddie. “Or that blond-”

Before she can finish, Elyza is tackled from behind. Unable to break her fall due to her tied hands, she slams into the ground, crying out in pain when her injured shoulder makes painful contact with the hardwood floor. She feels a hand grab her braid like a handle and start to slam her head into the ground. Whoever tackled her repeats the motion several time before pausing and saying, “Holy shit.”

“What? What is it Reed?” Jack asks advancing towards the pair, hand on his broken nose, trying to stop the bleeding.

“What does that look like to you?” she hears Read ask. She feels him wrap his hand around her braid, and pull it away from her neck.

“Holy shit,” he says. “How is that possible.”

As the two talk Elyza starts to laugh.

“What’s so funny, huh?” Reed asks her. “What are you laughing at?”

“Your stupidity,” she tells them, still laughing.

“Jack, w-what is it?” Elyza hears Alicia’s voice, and smiles to herself.

“She’s been bitten,” Jack announces to the group. To their surprise, Elyza just starts to laugh again.

“She’s going to turn?” Ofelia asks.

“That’s just the thing,” Jack says. “It’s almost completely healed. It’s almost gone.”

His announcement was met with silence.

“That’s not possible,” the pregnant woman says to the room at large. “She’d either have to have the cure, or she’d have to be-”

“Immune,” Reed completes the thought before she can.

The whole time that the trio had been talking, Elyza had been giggling to herself in a dazed state. They all fall silent and listen to her laugh. Alicia looks extremely worried while the rest of her family looks extremely confused. Reed pulls her up by her hair once again, and turns her so that he can look her in the eyes. She squints because the sun is starting to come up and the light is shining in her eyes.

“What’s so funny?” Reed asks her.

“Like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone dumber than you,” she says. Reed’s nostrils flare and he delivers a punch to her face. She chuckles again and says to herself, “Immune. Cure…. What a fucking idiot!”

Reed yells and slams her head into the floor again, effectively knocking her out and causing Alicia to scream in horror. They all stare at Elyza’s limp body, and Alicia tries not to cry. Something about this situation feels somewhat familiar.

_“She was supposed to be unharmed,” she mumbles to Indra, as they stand at the door and watch the girl sleep. She had been stubborn, but eventually she had let the healers take care of her injuries. One of the herbs that she had to take had knocked her out completely._

_“As the Azgeda Prince said, she fought, he had to fight back.” She nods at Indra’s words but she doesn’t really answer._

_She swallows harshly before she speaks, “Indra, leave us. Take the guards with you.”_

_“Heda-” Indra tries._

_“You will do as I say!” she growls at her general, who nods quietly and takes her leave._

_Once she is alone, she takes a deep breath and approaches the blonde who is dead to the world. Slowly she lowers herself onto the bed so that she is sitting next to Clarke’s elbow. She reaches out and pushes Clarke’s hair behind her ear. She tells herself that she should stop, but she knows she can’t. She doesn’t have the willpower to leave the girls side._

_“Oh Clarke,” she says quietly. Finally, here, where there’s none but her and Clarke, she allows herself to fall apart. The tears start to fall unbidden and she starts to gently stroke Clarke’s face. All of the pain that she’s been feeling for the past three months that she hasn’t been able to express, come pouring out. “God, Clarke, I’m so sorry! Oh I’m so sorry!” She starts to sob and she drapes herself across Clarke, resting her ear over the girl’s heart. The steady beat calming her flood of emotions. She takes a few deep breathes and sits up again, wiping at her cheeks._

_As she calms, she gently runs her hands over Clarke’s many cuts, and bruises, and bandages. Once she’s done expecting Clarke’s injuries, she starts running her fingers through her matted hair._

_“I promise that I’m going to protect you Clarke. No matter what, I’m going to keep you safe.” She once again tries to hold back her tears with little success._

_The fear of not knowing whether or not Clarke was alive these past few months had consumed her. She had felt hollow. Every time one of her messengers had come to talk with her, her heart and mind immediately jumped to the same conclusion; she’s dead. But after all this time, her she was, alive and well, and she couldn’t thank the gods above enough. She was here, she came back, and somehow, someway, she was going to prove her unfaltering love to the blonde._

_When she had seen the blood on the blonde’s face when Roan had pulled of that sack off her heart had sputtered to a halt. Pain and sadness flared through her heart at the thought of the other girl being in pain. She wanted to run Roan through with her sword for bringing any kind of harm to Clarke. She wanted to make the bastard pay. But once again, she had to make a decision with her head and not her heart. She’s so done with having to make those choices. She just wants to_ live _. She wants to live her life with Clarke._

_She sits there for another thirty minutes before she leans forward and kisses Clarke’s forehead. She whispers a soft, “Ai hod yu in,” against the skin there and pulls away. She stares at Clarke’s face for a little while longer before she turns to leave._

_“Lexa,” she hears the blonde whisper. She turns back to face the girl only to find that she’s still sleeping. “I love you.”_

_The words almost make her start crying again, but instead, she smiles the biggest smile she’s ever felt, and she releases a small laugh._

_She knows, that somehow, someway, her and Clarke are going to be okay. She’s going to fix this if it’s the last thing she does._

_She turns and exits Clarke’s room, closing the door gently behind her. Once it’s closed she leans against the glass and sighs happily. She releases another breathy laugh before she pushes of the door and walks away, refusing to allow herself to skip like she so desperately wants to._

_She smiles to herself. She hasn’t felt like this since she was a kid._

_And she loves it._

As Alicia looks at Elyza now, she feels the same stab of anger, fear, and pain that she did in her vision at the sight of the injured blonde. She feels ice rush through her veins and she wants to start fighting back, but she knows that if she tries, they’ll kill Elyza. She won’t let that happen, not now. She doesn’t know why, but these visions that she’s having are pulling her towards the blonde. And she’ll be damned if she lets Elyza die before she can figure out what is going on, and why she feels so strongly for the young woman after such a short time of knowing each other.

She watches as Reed cuts the ropes on her wrists and reties her hands behind her back. She wants to start crying at the amount of blood that that she sees running down Elyza’s face when Reed turns her over again. She is so tired of seeing Elyza in any kind of pain. It seems as though, Elyza has been hurt one way or another since they had met and it was making Alicia sick.

When he’s done with her hands, Reed stands and drags her towards the couch, the proceeding to tie her to one of the couch legs so that she can’t escape again. Once he’s done he rises to his feet and wipes the blood off of his face before he walks over to Alicia and ties her hands too. She struggles slightly as he drags her to sit on the couch, but a nice threat about her getting a knife to her throat if she didn’t stop calmed her down.

“Jack,” Reed says, “go check the rest of the boat. Make sure that there’s no one left…. And find me a damn radio.”

“Yes, Reed,” Jack says, making his way towards the stairs. He sends Alicia an apologetic glance over his shoulder, then continues down to the lower level.

Reed walks among his hostages, and every time that he passes Elyza, he delivers a swift kick to some part of her body trying to wake her up.

“She’s not dead is she?” the pregnant woman asks.

“No, she’s alive,” he says as he moves to stand at her feet, looming over the blonde.

“How do you know?” the woman asks him, when he turns his head to look at her.

It all happens so quickly that no one really knows how to react. Elyza’s eyes shoot open and it’s all Alicia can do to refrain her gasp. Once Elyza sees the man standing over her, she bucks her hips and deliver a swift kick to his groin. The man bends over and she bucks her hips again, delivering what is most likely a very painful kick to his throat. He collapses, and before she can do anymore damage, the pregnant woman rushes over and pistol whips Elyza across the face. Elyza slumps in pain and all the fight seeps out of her in droves until she’s just a shuddering heap. When she’s done with Elyza, Pregnant Lady points her gun at the rest of the group.

“Anyone else?” she asks. She receives a series of no’s and shakes of the head. She nods once then moves to help Reed to his feet. Once he stands he moves to the blonde’s side and kicks her as hard as he can in the ribs. She flinches and the only noise that she makes is even more laughter. She pushes herself up and spits blood onto the ground.

“Dude,” she laughs, American accent still strong. “You just got your ass kicked by a nineteen-year-old girl who had her hands tied behind her back. That’s just pathetic!” She starts laughing again, causing the older man to scream and lash out. Before he can hit the girl again however, Pregnant Lady steps in and holds him back.

“Stop, we can’t afford to kill her,” she says. “She may be the key to everything.”

Her words just cause the blonde to laugh even more.

“If you believe that,” she tells them, “then both of you are dumber than you look.”

The two just shrug it off and Reed turns to the group.

“Who has the key to the boat?” he asks Alicia.

“I don’t know,” she tells him with a shrug of her shoulders.

“You gonna start lying now?” he asks her.

“You leave her alone,” Chris growls at the man. Reed just looks at him and chuckles.

“Hey,” Ofelia starts, “That guy you shot? Genius, he’s the one with the key. You shot our captain.”

“I think we’ve already established that he’s the dullest bulb on the chandelier my friend,” Elyza tells Ofelia. Once again her comment goes ignored by reed.

“That true?” he asks Chris. When Chris doesn’t answer, Reed let’s his anger take control, and he pistol whips the kid across the face.

“Hey! Keep your damn hands off him!” Travis yells, trying to get up.

“Get back,” Reed says calmly, cocking the gun and holding it to Chris’s head.

“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” Travis stutters. “Don’t hurt him.”

“I’m gonna give you to the count of five,” Reed says, “to tell me where the key to the boat is…. One.”

“He doesn’t have it,” Travis says.

“Who does?” Reed asks. “Two.”

“Please, jus-just stop okay? C’mon man,” Travis tries, Reed just looks at him and cocks the gun again. They all look to Elyza to see if she can help, but the blonde is to out of it to take notice of what is going on.

“Three.”

“Strand,” Travis tells him. “Like she said. Strand, our captain. He has the keys.” Reed grabs Chris by his neck and shoves him backwards into the couch, shoving the gun against his forehead. “Hey!”

“Four!”

“Dad!” Chris cries urgently.

“Jus- you don’t need the keys okay?” Reed looks at Travis. “I ca- I can start the boat without the keys… I can wire the boat. Jus- let my- let my son go.”

Reed looks at Travis for a long while before he lifts the gun and pats Chris on the cheek. It’s then that Pregnant Lady moves Madison to one of the couches.

“Where’s Nick?” she asks everyone, before looking at Alicia for the answer.

“He wasn’t there when I woke up,” Alicia tells her mother.

“I heard gunshots!” she says.

“Strand abandoned the ship. They shot at him,” Daniel informs Madison.

“Was he hit?” she asks the older man.

“We don’t know,” Daniel tells her.

“Was he alone?”

Before she can receive an answer however, Jack returns to the living room, effectively stopping any questions that she might’ve asked.

“Strand yanked out the wheel-house radio,” he announces as enters the living area. “No one else is here.”

“Well,” Reed says, “Travis here just bet his son’s life that he can start the boat without a key! So…. Watch them,” he tells Pregnant Lady. “Keep an eye on that blonde, if she gives you trouble don’t kill her, but feel free to make her life miserable.” He turns back to Jack. “Find the spare radio, reach out to Connor…. Oh, and take your princess with you.”

“No, no, no!” Madison says, rising to her feet and advancing towards the young man.

“Mom,” Alicia tries to placate her mother, also rising to her feet. “Don’t. It’s okay. It’s okay… I’m okay. I brought this on us, I can make it better. I trust him.”

“Alright, come on, let’s go,” Jack says, stepping forward to grab Alicia by the elbow. He spins them around and begins to make his exit. He stumbles a bit and turns around to see what tripped him. He sees the blonde girls extended legs and watches as she shrugs her shoulders with fake innocence. He’s about to advance on her when a slight tug from Alicia stops him. The group watches as the two exit out onto the deck and as Reed drags Travis upstairs.

They sit in silence and Madison takes the time to examine Elyza. She takes in the sight of all of her injuries. The blonde has blood dripping down her face, and Madison can even make out some newly developed bruises poking out from under her tank top. She remembers the sight of the blonde standing over the two men that greeted her when she had reached the top of the steps.

“How’d you do it?” Madison asks her. “How did you manage to get free?”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” the young blonde replies. “Plus, I have double jointed shoulders.”

Madison nods.

“What’s with the accent?” she asks, curious as to why Elyza was still talking in an American accent.

“They were looking for an Australian. I wasn’t about to give them one.”

Once again Madison nods. Then she looks at Daniel who is struggling quietly against his binds.

“Did you see Nick when you were on watch?” She asks, turning to look at Chris.

“No,” is the simple reply that she receives. She looks to Ofelia for confirmation.

“He might’ve come up when we were on the bow,” Ofelia tells the worried mother.

“The only one who would know,” Daniel says, “is in the sea.”

“There’s only three of them,” Madison says, looking once again at Daniel trying to loosen his binds. “Can you get loose?”

“Keep her distracted,” Daniel tells her. With that the pair sets their plan into action. Though she tries Elyza finds it impossible to pay attention. She falls in and out of consciousness the longer that they sit there. She silently thanks Nick for finding her kids that hiding place because they have yet to be found, and if she has any luck at all then they won’t be.

She’s woken by a kick to the ribs. The action sends her into a coughing fit. She looks around confused unsure of when she had fallen asleep. She squints up at the figure above her, the light of the sun burning her eyes, making it harder for her to depict who the figure is. Once her vision clears she sees that Reed is looming over her once again.

“Aw look! The princess is awake!” he says with a shit-eating grin. Elyza looks around and sees that he’s still holding Travis by the arm. Everyone is sitting in silence watching the progression of things. As they stand there, Jack and Alicia re-enter the room. She turns her head and sees the pregnant lady sniff I tumbler of scotch. She chuckles and turns back to the man who is looming over her

“Oh, shut up,” Elyza says, trying desperately to push herself up into a sitting position. “You don’t need to act so tough you know. I know your type, guy. You don’t scare me. I’ve known men who would make _you_ shit yourself. Compared to them? You’re nothing but a cute little ferret.”

Reed kicks her again. “Yeah?” he asks. “What’s my type?”

“Misunderstood all of his life. Doesn’t know how to take responsibility for his actions. Has a violent and psychotic side due to the fact that he grew up in an abusive home. Probably even killed small animals and pretended that they were your dad. You were never able to fight back because you were a scared, weak, p-”

“Shut UP!” Reed yells grabbing Elyza by her collar, letting Travis go in the process.

“Pathetic,” she continues. Reed pulls her face closer to his own as he bends over her.

“I said. Shut. Up,” he growls dangerously, lifting the gun up under her chin.

“Sad, sad, broken little boy. Pathetic.” Reed pulls her face even closer to his, and Elyza takes that as her opportunity to head-butt him. He recoils backwards and Elyza uses the new distance between them to reach down and bite his wrist hard. He screams in pain and releases the gun, it falls and lands right next to Elyza’s hip. He recognizes his mistake at the exact same moment as she does. And at that they both start scrambling for the gun.

Elyza twists her body as much as she can to reach the gun. Every time that Reeds hand gets close she kicks out with all of her might and forces him back again. Finally, she gets a grasp on the gun and she continues to fight with Reed as she tries to find an angle in which she can get a shot off. After what seems like forever they hear the gun go off, and Reed falls back clutching his arm. Elyza moves so that she can try and shoot him again but, before she can she feels an exploding pain flood through her head, and before she knows it everything is black.

She doesn’t know how long it was before she finally woke up but when she did Alicia was leaning over her.

“Hi,” Elyza mumbles to her. The brunette just glares at her and continues to tend to the blonde’s wounds. “Aw, don’t be mad, I’m alright Peaches."

“You’re an idiot,” Alicia tells her not making eye-contact. “It’s like you’re trying to get yourself killed!”

“All I was doing was presenting myself with opportunities to fight back. It’s not my fault that every attempt failed. Plus, I told you. I’ve had worse.”

“I don’t care if you’ve had worse, or if it wasn’t your fault, or whatever. If you keep this up there’s nothing that Jack will be able to do to protect you.” As soon as she said it Alicia knew it was the wrong thing to say. The blonde’s pained smile drops from her face and Elyza immediately shuts down. Alicia can’t help but recoil at the anger in Elyza’s eyes.

“I don’t need anyone to protect me,” Elyza growls, pulling away every time that Alicia’s hands come close to her, refusing her help. “And you know what? I don’t need your help anymore either… so just… leave me alone.”

Before Alicia can do anything to stop Elyza from moving away everyone freezes when someone enters the room.

“Jesus Christ what the hell happened here?” The man says as he takes in all of the broken artifacts and the blood that’s smeared all over the room. As soon as he’s done asking the question, Elyza raises her foot and smiles at the man when he turns to look at her.

“That would be me,” she told him, her smile refusing to falter even when the man and woman behind the new guy turned their guns on her. The man scoffs at her statement.

“You,” he says skeptically. “You did all of this?”

“Yep!” she exclaims with false cheer. “And I’m also the one who jacked up your brother.”

Before anyone can move there’s a gun to Elyza’s forehead. The blonde doesn’t even blink when the cold metal of the barrel touches her skin. She even allows her smile to grow.

“How do you know that he’s my brother?” the man asks dangerously.

“I guessed,” Elyza states. “What really gave it away though was that the two of you have the same ugly-ass features.”

The man smiles grimly back at her before slamming the butt of his gun across her face.

“And who are you?” the man asks her.

“Well, Connor,” the man quirks his brow at her. “I heard them talking about what would happen when Connor gets here, I’m not as stupid as your dear brother. Because apparently he can’t get with the program, and stop biting every time the blonde teenager baited him. All he succeeded in doing was getting his ass kicked. Every. Time…. But I guess we can’t all be as amazing as me.”

“Does she ever shut up?” Connor asked his brother. Reed just shook his head in reply and Connor turned back to Elyza, raising his gun to her forehead again. “Well then I guess we should just kill her then.”

Before he can even pull the trigger, his brother is shoving his gun away from the blonde.

“You can’t,” Reed tells Connor. “She has something that we need.”

“Yeah?” Connor asks. “What’s that?”

“She was bitten,” Reed says.

“All the more reason to kill her.” Connor raises the gun once again, and Alicia starts to struggle against the hold that Jack has on her.

“No!” Reed interjects, pushing his brother’s gun down once again. “She was bitten a long time ago. She hasn’t turned! Look!” He turns back to Elyza and grabs her by the hair, yanking her head forward so that Connor can see the bite mark on the back of her neck. “She’s immune.”

“Or she knows a cure,” Connor whispers. As soon as the words leave his mouth Elyza is laughing.

“Oh lord! Are all of you as dumb as you look?” she asks, letting her head roll around to look at the different pirates in the room. “There is no cure! And y’all are the dumbest people ever to believe that there is one!”

Connor looks up at the rest of the room. He takes in the man that Reed has by the arm and he girl that Jack has by the arm.

“Travis and Alicia, I presume?” he asks Reed.

“Yeah, this is the one who hotwired the boat.” Reed gives Travis a little shake.

“Good, load them on the other boat.” Connor looks down at the blonde at his feet. The girl is still chuckling and it’s starting to annoy him. “What are you laughing at?” he asks her.

She smiles and looks up at him, “That ginger, is the first ginger that I’ve seen in a while. And Ginger has a gun, and everyone knows, that a ginger with a gun is a ginger who is one step away from ginger insanity.”

“Stop saying that!” the redhead woman yells at her, causing Elyza to smile again.

“Ginger,” she whispers. The redhead takes a step towards her.

“I said stop saying that!”

“I didn’t _say_ ginger, I whispered it.… Ginger.” The woman makes a move to hit Elyza, but Connor intervenes.

“Just get her on the damn boat please!”

“Sir yes sir!” Elyza mocks him as Jack unties her and roughly drags her to her feet. “Whoa, buddy!” she tells him with a sly smile. “I didn’t know you liked it rough!”

“For CHRIST’S sake! Get her on the GOD DAMN BOAT!” Connor yells. Elyza laughs as she’s dragged down to the boat by Ginger.

“Patience is a virtue!” she calls to the aggravated man. Any response from him is unheard by the blonde as she’s shoved face down onto a boat. She hears the woman leave and rolls onto her side so that she can see when people are coming towards the boat.

When she watches as Travis and Alicia are dragged to the boat and thrown in. Ginger purposely throws Travis on top of Elyza, the blonde crying out in pain as his weight causes even more damage to her previous injuries. He scrambles to get off of her as quickly as possible. She groans as he accidentally elbows her in the stomach, sending a sharp shock through the bruises that cover her skin there.

After a while, once they get far enough from the ship apparently; their captors remove the sacks from over Travis and Alicia’s heads. As soon as her vision clears Alicia is moving to Elyza’s side. She sends a silent thank you to which ever god is up there that neither of them get punished for her actions. The blonde is lying on her back, watching through the slits of her swollen eyes as the clouds pass in and out of her narrow field of vision. When she notices Alicia kneeling over her, she lets a small smile grace her lips.

“Hey,” Elyza whispers, her smile widens when she sees that Alicia has positioned herself so that their captors can’t see that she’s gently holding Elyza’s hand in her lap.

“How are you feeling?” Alicia whispers to the battered blonde. She can’t refrain herself from reaching out to push the hair that’s draped across her cheek behind her ear. She gently strokes Elyza’s cheek a few more times before she withdraws her hand.

“Like a daffodil,” Elyza deadpans, and she swears that her pain fades just the slightest bit when a soft laugh slips through Alicia’s lips.

“Just take it easy,” Alicia whispers to her, her thumb softly rubbing figure eights on the back of Elyza’s hand. She sees the other girl flinch as she tries to move, before deciding to just stay where she is. “Here,” she moves to support the blonde, “let me help you sit up.”

“Nah,” Elyza waves her off. “I’m quite content to just lay here and look at the stars.”

_Once again she finds herself in the chambers of the fierce blonde that seems to occupy her very being. Only now the blonde isn’t so fierce. She rushed to the girl’s room because once again, her screams pierced the silence of the night. She had rushed into the room to find Clarke tossing and turning in her bed. As she watched Clarke rolled out of the bed and slammed onto the floor. She rushes forward, expecting the girl to wake at the impact, but she just continues to thrash._

_She kneels at Clarkes side and pulls her up to her chest. She cradles her there, trapping the girl’s arms at her sides in the embrace. As she tries to rouse the girl she speaks quietly into her hair. She adjusts her chin so that the blonde is tucked comfortably into the crook of her neck._

_“Clarke, shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe. Clarke, shhh, shhh.” She finds herself rocking back and forth, trying to refrain from tears herself. It hurt her so much to watch Clarke struggle like this._

_“No,” the blonde mumbles, once again trying to wiggle out of her grip. “No… please, let them go. Let them go. Let them go!” With each sentence her body shakes. She continues to rock Clarke trying to sooth her before whatever she was dreaming broke her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to… you gave me no choice! Let them go, let them go… let her go. Let her go! LET HER GO!” Clarke screams and a large sob wracks her body and rips through her throat. “NO!” The scream is course and painful, followed by more sobs. Finally, with a jolt and a resonating, “LEXA NO!” Clarke’s eyes fly open as she tries to take in her surroundings. Sobs continue to wrack her small frame._

_When Clarke realizes who is holding her, who is rocking her, and soothing her, and keeping her_ safe _. She clutches the front of the other girl’s nightgown and cries into her neck. They sit there for a long time as she waits and soothes and prays for the blonde to feel better. After what feels like hours, Clarke calms. She feels the blonde pull back slightly and she looks down to meet deep blue eyes._

_“Thank you,” Clarke whispers up to her. “Thank you for being here for me.”_

_“Always,” she whispers, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. “Always Clarke.” Silence fills the space between them, until she decides that she should let Clarke rest. “Let’s get you back in bed, huh?”_

_“I’m actually quite content to stay right here and look at the stars. They’re beautiful.” Clarke stares out her window. She shifts and attempts to move the blonde._

_“You need more sleep. This is the fourth time this week, and I know that that’s because you didn’t sleep last night. So let’s go Clarke.” With that she lifts the blonde as if she were nothing and sets her on the bed. She leans forward and kisses her head once again before whispering, “And you can still see the stars to count as you fall asleep,” and turning to leave._

_She’s stopped by a gentle hand on her wrist._

_“Please… stay,” Clarke whispers to her when she turns her head to look at the blonde. As she looks into those blue eyes she can’t help but nod._

_“Okay,” she breathes as she slides into bed next to the blonde._

Alicia blinks at the end of the vision and the emotions from what the saw and felt etch themselves into her mind and soul. She can feel the tears spring to her eyes at the obvious pain in both of the blondes.

“Elyza it’s the middle of the day, you’re not supposed to see stars yet!” she tries to joke back, but the effect is ruined when her voice breaks. Elyza’s eyes snap to her at the sound.

“Hey, I was joking,” Elyza tells her, reaching up to swipe a tear from the girl’s cheek. “I’m okay. Everything will be okay. We’ll get out of this… I promise. Okay?”

Alicia nods and whispers back, “Okay.”

“I promise.”

She watches as the blondes eyes close and she slips into unconsciousness. She does a scan of the boat to insure that nobody is watching. And when she’s sure that she’s clear she leans forward and presses a kiss to the sleeping blonde’s forehead; the action sending waves of sorrow and love through her heart. Though she doesn’t quite understand it, she welcomes the feeling.

“I promise too,” she whispers in the blonde’s ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review! Reviews inspire me to write!!!!!


	9. Maybe There Are No Good Guys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're on Connor's really big boat... can they escape?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to Elyza the story line is changing, so it won't be just like the show's events anymore. Please Review!

Nick can feel his heart in his throat as Luis fires his rifle at the boat. He watches as the two people fall to the deck of the boat. He sees his mom rush out to see what had happened. When they get to the yacht, Nick hops out of the boat and rushes to his mother, pulling her into a hug.

“Where is everyone?” Nick asks, scanning the room before him and the numerous broken objects and blood stains. He sees the man with a crowbar sticking out of his side. “Shit. What happened?”

“They attacked the boat. Then others came and they took your sister, and Travis, and Elyza! They just took them!” His mother rants, not looking at anyone in particular.

“Did they take the kids?” Nick asks his mother, trying to break away from her embrace. When he receives no answer he starts to struggle even more. He looks around and spots Ofelia standing just inside the living room. “Ofelia!” he calls, when she looks up at him she just nods and Nick is thankful for the lack of necessity for words. She takes off down the stairs.

Nick continues to struggle until he finally pulls himself out of his mother’s grasp, and then he too is racing down the stairs. He races towards the hidden hall closet. As he gets closer he can hear the sounds of two small voices crying, and Ofelia trying to calm them down. He turns the corner to find her cradling a screaming Harley to her chest, while pulling in a distraught Aden into her side.

“Shhh, shhh. It’s okay, everything is going to be okay.” She bounces Harley trying to get her to calm. When Aden looks up from Ofelia’s shoulder and sees that he’s approaching he breaks from her grasp and walks towards him, his head hung, chin drooped to his chest. When he gets to the young boy Nick falls to his knees.

“What’s wrong buddy?” he asks the young boy who still refuses to look up.

“I got scared,” he whispers. “I heard the guns and ten the yelling and I got scared.”

Nick follows the boys line of sight and understanding smacks him in the face.

“That’s okay buddy. I do that when I get scared too. Let’s go get you changed, huh? I know that will make you feel better.” Nick stands and grabs the boys hand, leading him back towards the closet so that they can grab Aden’s bag of clothes.

“Where’s Mama?” Aden asks him, and both Nick and Ofelia feel pangs in their chests at the boy’s question.

“She’s not here buddy,” Nick tells him. “She uh… she went on a little trip, but she’ll be back before you know it. Okay? I promise.”

“But I want my Mama.” The small boy starts crying again.

“We’ll get her buddy. I promise, we’ll have her back before the end of the day. Okay?”

His only answer is a nod of the boy’s head and more cries. _Well fuck._ He thought to himself.

* * *

Elyza had to admit; this was definitely a first for her. Never in her life has she been repeatedly electrocuted by a car battery. She was standing… more like hanging in the middle of the room, her hands her tied together above her head and her binds were hooked onto a chain that was hanging from the ceiling. Her feet, which where dangling just centimeters off of the ground, where also tied together. Occasionally she would stretcher her feet so that she could stand a little bit and alleviate the pain in her shoulders.

She hadn’t said a word since they got here, she doesn’t know how long ago that was, but what she does know is that it’s been too long. As soon as they got to the large boat, she was separated from the others, and dragged into a dark and dank room. She could hear the sound of water dripping somewhere behind her. They blindfolded her as soon as they got to the room, it may seem strange but she knows why. They don’t want her to see what’s coming.

They had started with a knife. Asking her how she hasn’t turned yet. Where the cure was. Was she immune.

The more that she ignored them the more frustrated and violent they became.

When the knife didn’t work they moved on to a whip. That lasted by her estimate for about and hour before they moved on to the car battery.

“Is there a cure?” she hears one of the man ask her. Again, she remains silent. She has to refrain from biting her tongue in pain when they press the jump cables to her bare stomach.

“He asked you a question,” she hears the other man say. Once again when she doesn’t respond she is punished. The man surges forward and punches her across the face.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, or else this is going to be extremely unpleasant. Is. There. A. Cure?” With each word he presses the cables into a different part of her body. When she doesn’t answer he presses the cables to her neck and holds them there for as long as he can, listening to Elyza scream, and then watching as she passes out from the pain.

“Man, let’s take a break. Go get something to eat. This bitch isn’t going to talk anytime soon.” The second man tells his friend, grabbing him by the elbow and pulling him towards the door.

Elyza is left hanging there, in the middle of the room; her last makeshift bandages, just barely stopping her bleeding. Her bruised chin to her bloody chest, idly swaying back and forth on her chain, consciousness just beginning to seep back into her mind.

* * *

 

Alicia can’t stand the worry. She’s alone with Jack in the monitor room, she’s “helping” him choose which boats to steal, but she can’t find it in her to actually put any effort into it. Her thoughts remain solely on the blonde that’s being kept somewhere on this ship, and the kids that had her family that where left behind on the Abigail. Now Jack tells her that the Abigail is almost back. But it’s too soon. They shouldn’t be back for another few hours. She is going to get out of here with Travis and Elyza if it’s the last thing she does.

“I need you to take me to my friends,” Alicia tells Jack. “We need to get them and get out of here.”

“I can take you to Travis, but I don’t know if it’s safe for me to take you to Elyza. She’s dangerous,” Jack tells her, placing a hand on her shoulder. It takes everything in her not to shrug him off, but to lean into the touch; as if he’s actually comforting her.

“But you’ll try right?” she looks up into his eyes and tries to convince him with just one look.

He looks at her for a few seconds, reluctant to answer before he finally mutters, “Yes, I’ll try…. Now let’s go.”

He grabs her hand, and she has to take a deep breath to stop herself from pulling away. He pulls her out of the door and down a few flights of stairs. Slowly they approach a door. Jack turns his head towards Alicia and raises a finger to his lips. She waits until he turns back around to roll her eyes. She doesn’t need to be told that she needs to be quiet.

Jack reaches forward and opens the hatch in front of them. He steps inside, and she watches as he looks both ways then wave her in behind him. She follows, making sure to completely clear the threshold without bumping into anything. Once she’s inside she follows him down the hall towards a room in which she can see Travis pacing back and forth.

“Travis!” she hisses when they get closer. She sees panic flash across his eyes as he leaps to his feet and grabs the fenced door in front of him.

“Alicia! What are you doing here? No, no. you need to leave,” Travis says, shaking his head.

“No! I need to tell you that we’re going to get you out of here!” Alicia whispers to him. “We have a plan! You just need to be ready to go when we come for you, okay?”

“No, no, no. Just go! This is your chance just leave! Your mom would never forgive me if I was the reason you couldn’t get away,” Travis tries to reason with Alicia.

“No! She would kill me if I left you behind!” Alicia tells him.

“I don’t care, just get out while you can. This is-”

“I can’t!” Alicia interrupts him. “Elyza is still here somewhere and we need to find her! I won’t leave her behind!”

Travis is about to respond when they hear footsteps overhead.

“Alicia, we need to go!” Jack grabs her hand and pulls her back towards the door they came in through when she hears it.

All of them hear a blood curdling scream coming from down the hall on their left.

“Elyza,” Alicia breaths, fear coursing through her body.

She yanks her hand out of Jacks grip and sprints down the hall. She can still hear the scream, when she reaches the end of the hall, this time coming from her right. She heads in that direction and she can hear Jack chasing after her. At the end of this hall there’s a flight of stairs, and she doesn’t know whether to go down or up when she hears voices approaching her, as whoever is speaking ascends the stairs.

Jack pulls her into an open doorway and out of sight before the pair of guys can even reach the top of the stairs. They stand quietly and listen intently.

“Nothing is working; she hasn’t said a single word.” Alicia feels a rush of pride at the man’s words, but the feeling is short lived. “We need a new method.”

“We can break her fingers,” she hears the other man suggest when they reach the top of the stairs, and they approach the door they are hiding behind. “One by one.”

“We can’t do that, you idiot! If there is a cure, then she’s going to need her hands to do it! We need something else…. I know, we’ll take her finger nails, it’ll be painful, and she’ll still be able to use her hands….” They turn down the hall they came from and Alicia has to restrain herself from puking at the man’s words. She feels physically sick at what he’s said.

Jack sticks his head out of the doorway, and gives her the all clear. As soon as he tells her it’s safe she races out of the room and down the stairs. She stumbles at the bottom and listens intently once more, trying to discover which room Elyza is in. She can feel her heart pounding against her ribcage. She can hear Jack come to a stop behind her, and that’s when she hears it. There’s a soft creaking, like an unoiled swing in the wind, she looks straight ahead and sees a door towards the end of the hall that’s open.

She whirls towards Jack and tells him, “Keep watch, whistle if anyone is coming.”

She waits for him to nod and head back up the stairs, before she turns and sprints towards the open door. She runs inside, and without a single glance at the room and turns to shut the door behind her. She can still hear the creaking sound coming from behind her, and slowly turns to look at the source. She cries out at the sight before her and rushes towards the blonde. She can feel the tears that are rolling down her cheeks.

She watches as Elyza’s eyes flutter open. “‘Leesha?” Elyza croaks, confusion clear in her eyes.

“Oh my god,” a sob escapes her throat and she reaches out to gently cup the blonde’s face. Alicia locks eyes with Elyza and she can’t help but surge forward and presses her lips to the lips before her. They both let out sobs of relief but they don’t pull away from the kiss. They drink each other in, and even though they are both crying, they can’t bring themselves to pull away. Neither know how long they stay like that, but finally, Alicia pulls back because she can’t stand not being able to see Elyza’s eyes.

She fidgets with Elyza’s hair, gently pushing it back from her face. She knows that she’s still crying but she can’t help herself, seeing Elyza like this is breaking her heart. More tears make their way down her cheek as Elyza’s eyes open once again.

“Hi,” Elyza whispers to her, closing her eyes again and pressing her forehead to Alicia’s. Alicia releases something that can only be described as a mix between a sob and a chuckle, and kisses Elyza once again.

Alicia takes a deep breath and pulls away, taking a step back as she does so.

“Hi,” she breathes back. She moves to untie Elyza’s feet. “I’m going to get you out of here. We have a plan, we’re going to get out of here, I promise.”

She struggles with the knot because her hands are shaking so much. When she’s done, she rises to her feet and looks around the room for a way to unhook Elyza from the ceiling. As if she can tell what Alicia is looking for, Elyza interrupts her wonderings.

“Come here,” she beckons Alicia to her. Alicia willingly complies. “Wrap your arms around my waist.” Once again Alicia does as she’s told. “Lift.” Alicia raises Elyza just the slightest bit, and the blonde uses that extra give to lift her bindings off of the hook above her. Once she’s clear, she all but collapses forward against Alicia, the brunette willingly accepts her weight and gently eases the other girl to the ground.

She watches as Elyza flinches at every movement her body makes. Each flinch causes Alicia to flinch herself. She tells Elyza to just relax for a little bit and she reaches for the girl’s hands. Once again she struggles to untie the ropes around Elyza’s wrists because of the fact that her hands are shaking too much. She can still feel the tears that are falling down her cheek.

“Why did they do this to you?” she asks the girl before her. Elyza chuckles when she answers.

“They think I have a cure, for whatever the fuck this shit is,” Elyza tells her, with a shake of her head. “They saw a scar, on the back of my neck, that’s from a bite and they just assumed I was bitten by one of the infected.”

“Were you?” Alicia asks, unwinding the rope, and then gently massaging Elyza’s wrists, causing the girl to hum in appreciation.

“No,” she lets out a small, pained chuckle. “I was a bouncer before everything happened. One night I was escorting a woman out, she had had too much to drink, she fought back, and somehow, she managed to bite my neck. Took a nice little chunk out while she was at it if you ask me.”

“Why didn’t you just tell them that? This wouldn’t have happened if you had,” Alicia scolds her.

“I did actually, they just didn’t believe me. After that I just gave up,” Elyza says. She pauses to look up at Alicia before she whispers, “I thought I was going to die anyway, so what was the point of trying?”

“Oh, Elyza,” Alicia’s voice is broken as she whispers to the other girl. She tries to say more, but she finds that the lump in her throat is preventing her from doing so. She doesn’t know where all of these feelings for the blonde came from, but she does know that she’s glad that they’re there. She thinks it has something to do with her visions, but she doesn’t care because she knows that, wherever they came from and no matter how suddenly, these feelings are real. She leans forward to kiss the blonde once again, but she’s interrupted by a whistle.

“What was that?” Elyza asks, looking around to try and locate the source of the noise.

“That was our warning,” Alicia tells her, rushing to help the other girl stand. “They’re coming back. We need to get you out of here!”

“Wait! We have to do something about them! We can’t have them raising the alarm that I’m gone,” Elyza says, staggering towards a car battery in the middle of the room. She picks up the cables and hands them to Alicia. “I’ll take the first guy to come through the door you take the second. Press the two clips together, and then press them right to the guy’s heart okay? It won’t kill him, just stun him enough for us to tie and gag him okay? Hold it to his chest until he’s on his knees.”

Alicia nods and takes the cables from Elyza, the blonde’s instructions running through her head. She watches as Elyza opens the door just a crack and then he lets Elyza grab her by the elbow and pull her behind the now cracked door. They hold their breath and watch as the first guy walks through the door, his head turned back so that he can look at the guy behind him. As soon as both men are in the room the two make their move.

Elyza jumps on the first guy’s back, wrapping her good arm around his throat and squeezing.

“Hey!” Alicia shouts to get the other guy’s attention. As soon as he turns around Alicia practically stabs him with the jumper cables. She watches as he shakes and falls to his knees. As soon as he makes contact with the ground Alicia pulls away. She turns and watches as the first guy runs backwards to slam Elyza into the wall, trying to get her to lose her hold. Elyza doesn’t waver, if anything she tightens her hold. Finally, after what feels like hours but is actually just seconds the man falls to his knees and Elyza lets go, causing him to fall on his face unconscious.

They stand there, Elyza struggling for breath as she holds her ribs. The pain is evident on her face but she refuses to stop. She looks around the room and moves to grab her shirt and the rope that the men had used on her. Alicia moves to help, and Elyza tosses her the shirt. Without needing to be told, knowing what the blonde wants, she starts tearing the shirt into really thick strips.

Once she’s done, she sees that Elyza is struggling to drag the men to some pipes in the back of the room, and she rushes to help. With the effort of the two of them, it’s easy for them to move the men. As soon as they move the two men, Elyza uses the rope to tie them to different pipes. Just as they start to stir, Elyza grabs one strip of shirt and tosses the other strip to Alicia, not saying a word. For some reason, once again, Alicia knows what the blonde wants her to do.

They gag the men and leave the room just as the men wake up. Before they close the door completely, Elyza blows a kiss too both of the struggling men and then closes the hatch behind her. Turning the wheel on the door to make sure that they can’t be heard and that they can’t get out.

“Let’s go,” Alicia tells Elyza grabbing her hand and making to run back towards the stairs. She’s stopped by a tug from the blonde. She turns to face the other girl, a question on her lips, “Wha-”

She’s interrupted by Elyza’s lips on hers. She participates in the kiss for a few seconds before the blonde pulls back.

“Thank you,” Elyza whispers to her. “Who was the person who whistled?”

“It was Jack,” Alicia tells her, she can see the apprehension in Elyza’s eyes. “He’s helping us escape.”

“We can’t let him know that you set me free,” Elyza tells her in a panic. “I don’t trust him, he’ll warn somebody.”

“Okay, we won’t tell him,” Alicia tries to placate the blonde. “But what do I tell him about why I took so long?”

“Just tell him that they stopped right outside of your hiding place and you had to wait for them to go inside.” Alicia nods at Elyza’s words. “Now go,” Elyza tells her with another kiss. “I’ll be right behind you…. Go!”

Alicia nods and takes off heading for the stairs, when she reaches them she looks back at Elyza one last time before launching herself up the steps. She knows that that last glance of Elyza will have to do until she can actually be with the blonde again.

_“Reshop Heda,” Clarke says, giving her hand one last squeeze._

_She can feel the small smile that graces her lips before she responds, “Goodnight, Ambassador.”_

_She walks towards the door and she can’t help but look back at the blonde beauty, whose hair is blowing slightly in the breeze. She doesn’t know why but the sight and their interaction just fills her heart with joy and excitement. She pauses in the doorway one last tame and lets yet another small smile grace her lips. She exits the room, closing the door behind her with a gentle snap._

_She knows that Clarke is still afraid to admit her feelings. When she was thanking the blonde, all Clarke said was that she was doing what was best for her people. But by the way she subconsciously squeezed her hand, Clarke didn’t mean it. She could also see it in the way that Clarke grimaced ever so slightly at the cut on her hand._

_She was able to read all of the blonde’s emotions like a book. And seeing that the girl still cared for her sent her heart soaring. It made it almost physically painful to leave her behind. But she knew, that that last glance of a peaceful and safe Clarke would have to do until she can be with the blonde again._

_She smiles as she lays in bed and knows that her dreams are going to be filled with the fierce blonde. And she wouldn’t do a thing to change that._

Alicia shakes her head, when she reaches the top of the stairs. Wanting nothing more than to go back to the blonde after what she just saw. Before she can think about it anymore, her train of thought is interrupted by Jack’s hands on her shoulders.

“What took you so long?” he asks her. She can see worry in his eyes and has to once again refrain from rolling her eyes and scoffing.

“I had to wait for them to go inside the room. They stood outside of the door talking about what they wanted to do next. I had to wait for them to decide, and leave before I could come back to you. Oh Jack, I was so scared!” Alicia launches herself into his embrace, and she smiles when she hears a quiet scoff come from below them.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” he assures her, and she has to try not to laugh. _This guy is a real idiot;_ she thinks to herself. She pulls back and looks at him.

“We should go before someone comes,” she tells him. He nods and takes her hand, pulling her down the hall the way that they came. She looks back as the turn the corner and smiles when she sees Elyza’s head peeking out of the stair case and winking at her.

They’re going to get out of here…. She just knows it.

They get back to the monitor room without any incident. When they get there, Jack tells her to stay put while he went to get the keys for their getaway boat. She nods and gives him another hug to sell it, and then he’s gone.

She counts as she waits for Elyza. She makes it to seven Mississippi before she hears the door open behind her. She turns to see Elyza standing there, pain and exhaustion evident on her face. When she sees that Elyza is still in just her sports bra, Alicia takes off her sweater, adjusting her grey tee-shirt underneath, and handing it to the other girl.

“Here,” she says, watching as the blonde tries to repress a shiver. “You’re shivering; it’ll warm you up.”

“My body’s going i-i-into shock,” Elyza tells her as she struggles to pull the sweater over her head. After watching for about three seconds, Alicia decides to just jump in and help the blonde get the piece of clothing on. Doing it alone was obviously hurting the girl.

“Then you need to rest,” Alicia tells her, helping her ease into a chair. “If we can slow your heart rate; we can slow your blood flow, and you’ll stop losing so much blood.”

They sit there for a minute or two and wait for Elyza’s shivering to subside just a little bit. Alicia stands in front of the shivering blonde and runs her hands through Elyza’s hair, trying her best to soothe her. When the shivering has dissipated enough for Elyza to speak without stuttering; she finally speaks again.

“We need to hide,” she tells Alicia forcing herself out of the chair. “We don’t know when he’ll come back, but I don’t want to be here when he does. I don’t trust him. He may be serious about running away with all of us, but I’d rather go back to my family than take my chances with him.”

Alicia nods her agreement and the two exit the room cautiously, hand in hand. Alicia leads the two to the kitchen Connor had used to try and get to know her. As they walk Alicia tells Elyza about how he tried to convince her that she was in a safe place by making her steak.

“Wait,” Elyza interrupts her story. “They have steak?”

“Uh… yeah?” Alicia responds, unsure of where she was going with this. “He said he kept them stashed in the back of the freezer. Why?”

Instead of an actual response, all Alicia receives is the sight of the blonde pulling the sweater over her head and making her way to the freezer. As she goes she ties the arms around the top of the sweater, making a make-shift sack. She watches as Elyza runs to the refrigerator and digs through the freezer.

“What are you doing?” Alicia hisses, advancing towards the blonde and grabbing her arm to pull her out of the kitchen.

“Alicia stop!” Elyza rips her arm out of Alicia’s grip and continues digging through the freezer. “I’m getting payback for what they did to me. It may not be much, but…it’ll make me smile when I think about it.”

“We don’t have time for this. Someone will be here any minute; we need to hide!” Alicia was back to tugging on the blonde’s arm. Elyza remains completely immovable until she’s done tossing all of the zip-locked steaks that she can find into her makeshift sack. Once she’s done she closes the freezer door, whirls around grabbing Alicia’s hand, and pulling her to the cabinet doors under one of the kitchen counters.

Alicia gently helps Elyza ease into her empty cabinet, and she silently thanks whatever gods are out there that they were both small enough to fit. Her heart clenches at the grunts of pain that escape Elyza’s mouth as she finally curls up enough to completely fit into the cabinet. As soon as she’s in completely Alicia closes her cabinet door and dives into her own section when she hears the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Alicia?” they both hear Jack call. “Oh no. Alicia!”

They wait until they hear him thundering down the hallway before they crawl out of their hiding place. Elyza struggles to stand, requiring Alicia to help the blonde, who is straining to stand upright. They start to drag themselves towards the door through which Jack had come. Once they’re out they stumble towards the end of the deck that they’re standing on. The closer that they get to the ledge, the more of Elyza’s weight that Alicia has to bear.

“Oh my god,” slips out of Alicia’s mouth when she sees her mom and Travis below them fighting off some men on the dock. “They’re here.”

“Tha’s grey!” Elyza mumbles, unable to properly pronounce her words, letting them just kind of slur out of her mouth. “Now ‘e go ‘ome.”

“That’s right,” Alicia tells her. “Now we go home. We just need to find a way to get down there.”

“Alicia!” They both turn at the sound of the voice behind them. Jack is standing there, looking completely heartbroken. “Where are you going?”

“My family,” Alicia says. “They came back for me!”

“But we can go!” he pleads with her, advancing towards the two. “This is our chance!”

“He does realize that they’re your _family_ , right?” Elyza mumbles, surprising herself with how clear her words come out.

“It doesn’t matter!” Jack yells, the fact that Elyza was speaking with her Australian accent completely slipping his notice. “We can be together! Alex told me what they did! Do you really want to go back to people like that? They’re not good guys!”

“Maybe there’re no good guys,” Elyza says, struggling to keep the black out of her vision.

_“Lexa,” she hears the blonde say as they lay in bed together. “I think that Titus may be right. As much as I hate it, you might need to stop looking out for my people. You’re going to get yourself killed, and I don’t want that. I can’t lose you too!”_

_“I’m trying to be the good guy here. This is what you wanted. I’m trying to keep your people safe, to make up for what I’ve done,” she tells the blonde, rolling over to face the girl. “I’m trying to be the good guy,” she whispers one more time. “I’m trying to bring peace.”_

_“Maybe there are no good guys, Lexa. Maybe the best thing to do so that we can survive, and then_ live _, is to fight back. Show them that what they’re doing is going to get them killed.” Clarke says, pushing the stray hairs back over the other girl’s face. “I don’t want any more bloodshed, but if they continue on the way that they are, then there will be so much more death. I don’t want any more deaths than necessary, and I realize that now, the only way to prevent that is an attack on Arkadia. I know what you went through to just keep the barricade instead of an attack, but I realize now that it will be the death of you, and I can’t allow that. I won’t let you die because of my people. I won’t.”_

_She watches as the blonde leans over to kiss her again. The kiss is soft and loving and they try to maintain the kiss for as long as possible before Clarke pulls back again._

_“We have to give this blockade a shot. I really do believe in ‘blood must not have blood’. I want that to be our way, and I want to show our people that death doesn’t always have to be the answer.” She strokes the blonde’s arm, gently trying to warm her to her decision. “I want us to have a future. And this is the only way that I know how to ensure that we do. So please. Trust me.”_

_It’s silent as she watches Clarke struggle and weigh her options. Clarke draws her lips between her teeth and blinks away her tears as she nods._

_“Fine. I’ll find a way to bring you Pike, but I have to leave…. Right now.” Clarke throws herself out of bed and gets dressed as quickly as possible as she watches. She slowly pushes herself up and gets dressed herself. Clarke doesn’t even spare her a glance before she’s out the door, a slam echoing behind her._

_She finds herself having to blink the tears out of her eyes. She doesn’t like this. She doesn’t like the way that they have to part. She paces her room, trying to think about whether or not they’d be able to do something differently. Every time she pictures that look of defeat on Clarke’s face, she feels a stab of pain in her heart. Finally, she decides that she can’t let this be goodbye, she has to see the blonde one last time. She knows that she needs to tell the girl that she loves her. She needs Clarke to know that no matter what happens she loves her._

_The thought brings a smile to her face as she tears out of her chambers and races towards where she knows Clarke is._

The vision leaves Alicia’s mind right as Elyza collapses next to her. Alicia stumbles under the unexpected extra weight of the blonde next to her. “Elyza?”

“We could be together!” Jack tries, once again advancing closer to the girl.

“Alicia!” Her head whips around at the sound of her mother’s voice, and she sees her and Travis in the raft below them.

She turns back towards Jack, “You’re crazy.”

With that she turns, pulling Elyza’s limp body with her, and throwing their bodies over the edge. The metal that they slide on burns Alicia’s exposed arms, and she can only imagine what it feels like on Elyza’s bare back. They slide over the edge and plummet straight into the water. Alicia struggles to pull Elyza’s deadweight up to the surface with her. When she gets there she finds her mother’s hand reaching out to her. Alicia treads water as she hands Elyza to her mother and then pulls herself up over the side, and lays there in exhaustion. It’s then that she realizes that Elyza had tied her makeshift sack to her wrist somehow, and was lying next to the girl’s side.

Alicia felt the overwhelming urge to laugh but she stopped when she saw what her mother was doing. She was leaning over Elyza, pumping her chest.

“Mom?” Alicia asks, pushing herself up onto her knees. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“She’s not breathing!” Madison cries as she continues to administer CPR on Elyza.

“What?” Alicia exclaims, crawling to Elyza’s side and grabbing her free hand, waiting for the girl to wake up. “No, no, no, no, no!”

It’s silent except for Madison’s heavy breathing as she pumps Elyza’s chest. She repeats herself again and again and again. Alicia can feel the tears on her cheeks as she waits in agony for the blonde to wake.

After her fifth try, Madison stops and pulls away, looking up at her daughter with sad eyes. “Sweetie, I’m so s-”

“No!” Alicia pushes her mother back and leans over Elyza, starting the compressions herself. “You can’t do this to me! No, no, no! Elyza!” She continues to pump. “Please!” she cries. “Please, Elyza! No!” She pumps and pumps, pausing only to breathe air into Elyza’s lungs.

Finally, after what seems like eternity but was actually only minutes, Elyza wakes up.

Alicia falls backwards as Elyza shoots forward screaming, “ _Lexa!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Review! Reviews inspire me to write! Which means quicker updates!!!!


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